A Bat is provided with true wings, with which it is able not merely
to propel itself through the air for a longer or a shorter distance,
but to fly like a bird by beating the air with its anterior members.
The Colugo, in common with the Flying Squirrel and the Flying
Phalanger, has the skin of the flanks extended in a manner capable
of sustaining the animals, very much in the manner of a parachute,
in an extended leap through the air. But bats possess the power of
true flight. They move through the air with ease, and in pursuit of
their insect-prey wheel and double and circle about with a
nimbleness that the human eye can only follow with difficulty.
The bats are strange looking animals, being half mouse, half bird;
their fore limbs are very long, and between these and the hind
limbs, and also generally extending to the tail, there is a delicate
membrane, which enables them to fly. Their eyes are small; their
large ears erect; their teeth sharp. The flight of the bats is
swift and noiseless, but not enduring. They could not, like the
migratory birds, fly off in the autumn towards warmer countries.
Therefore in the winter they retire into clefts and crannies, where
they suspend themselves by the claws of their hind feet, and sleep
until the rays of the spring sun warm their benumbed limbs. Our
native bats feed upon insects, and are consequently useful. In the
warm summer evenings they can be seen flitting around the blossoming
trees in order to catch the honey-sucking moths. They do not build
any nest for their young, but the latter cling between the folds of
the wings of the parent animal, and are thus carried about by her on
her excursions.
The best known of the foreign kinds are the vampire bat of South
America and the colugo bat. In the flying lemur, or colugo, the
hairy fold of skin begins behind the throat, includes fore and hind
limbs as far as the claws, and extends along the tail to the tip.
The animal has been observed to swoop over a distance of seventy
yards. The flying lemurs are about twenty inches in length, are
natives of the Indian Archipelago, inhabit lofty trees in dense
forests, and feed chiefly on leaves and fruits, though said at times
to eat insects, eggs, and even small birds. They are nocturnal in
their habits, and very inoffensive, scarcely attempting to bite even
when seized. Their voice resembles the low cackling of a goose.