Among other remarks which I received from the ingenious M. de la
Nux upon this work, after its first publication, were the following
respecting these animals. He says, in general terms, that the size and
number of the Great Ternat Bats are both exaggerated; that instead of
attacking men they invariably endeavour to get from them, consequently
never bite but when taken, or defending themselves, which they do then
most dreadfully; and that instead of being ferocious animals, they
are perfectly gentle in their dispositions. Speaking from his own
experience, he says, both the great and small Ternat bats are natives
of Bourbon, the isles of France, and Madagascar, in the former of
which he had resided upwards of fifty years; when he first arrived
there they were very numerous in many places where at present they are
not to be found, and for these reasons, that the forests were then
adjacent to them, which had been cleared away by the settlements, and
that it is only in forests they can subsist; besides, they bring forth
but once a year, and are hunted, both by whites and negroes, for the
sake of their flesh and grease. The females are in season about the
month of May, and produce towards the end of September. They appear
to come to maturity in about eight months, since there are no small
ones to be seen after April or May, and the young are to be known
from the old by their colours being more vivid: they become grey with
age, but it is uncertain at what period; at this time their flesh is
very disagreeable, and their fat alone, of which they have plenty
during the summer, is eaten by the negroes. They never feed upon any
kind of flesh, but entirely on bananas, peaches, and other fruits and
flowers with which these forests abound: they are exceedingly fond
of the juices of certain umbellated flowers; and it is possibly for
the purpose of sucking the different species of them that they have
such a number of sharp papillæ on their tongues. They never touch the
skins of the mango, perhaps because it is resinous. Some of them
which have been caught, and kept alive, have been known to eat bread
and sugar-canes, but I believe, even in that state, no kind of meat,
either raw or prepared. There cannot be any thing to apprehend from
these animals, either personally, or even for poultry, because they are
incapable of seizing upon the smallest bird, for if they come too near
the ground they fall, and are then under the necessity of climbing up
some elevated object before they can resume their flight, and in this
case they climb up the first thing they meet with, even if it be a man.
They trail their bodies along, consequently move very slow, and which
is of itself sufficient to prove their incapacity for seizing birds.
These animals, when going to take wing, cannot, like birds, dart at
once into the air, but are obliged to beat their wings several times
to fill them, and to release their claws from what they have hold of,
and even then the weight of their bodies frequently bears them to the
ground; from this necessity of filling their wings they cannot take
flight from any part of the tree, but are obliged to crawl to a part
of the branch where they can act with perfect freedom. They are much
alarmed at the firing of a gun, or at a peal of thunder; and if a
large flock of them, resting upon a tree, are surprised by either of
these reports, in their haste to fly, numbers of them fall to the
ground, not having sufficient air in their wings; in this case they
hasten to climb up the first object they met with; let us therefore
only suppose that object to be a traveller unacquainted with these
animals; he would naturally be struck with terror at being suddenly
surrounded with a number of creatures of such an ugly form and aspect,
and especially when they began to climb up his body; he would of course
endeavour to extricate himself from them, and they, in turn, finding
themselves roughly treated, might begin to scratch and bite. Would
not a circumstance of this nature be sufficient to give rise to the
idea that these bats were ferocious animals, rushing upon men for the
purpose of wounding and destroying them? when the whole would arise
from the rencounter of different animals mutually afraid of each other.
They are led to reside in forests by instinct, it being there only
they can procure subsistence, and not from any savage disposition;
besides this, neither of these bats ever light upon carrion, nor do
they eat upon the ground, but generally in a hanging posture, and which
appears to be necessary when they feed all of which is surely enough
to prove they are neither carnivorous, voracious, nor cruel animals;
and as their flight is both heavy and noisy, there cannot remain a
doubt of their being a species very distant from the vampyre. The great
Ternat bats have also been charged with feeding on fish, because they
sometimes fly very near the water; but this is equally untrue, for it
is certain that they live entirely on vegetables, and it is solely for
the purpose of washing themselves that they go so near the water, being
an exceedingly clean animal, for of the numbers I have killed I never
found dirt upon any of them.
When near, the great Ternat bat is certainly rather disgustful, and all
his motions are disagreeable, and it is only when perched on a tree
that his natural deformity is concealed; he then hangs with his head
downward, his wings are folded close to his sides, his vibrating wings,
which are his greatest defects, as well as hind paws, by which he is
suspended, are concealed, and there then appears only a round plump
body, covered with a clean, smooth brown hair, terminated with a head
rather agreeable than otherwise. This is the only attitude in which
they take repose, they frequently remain in it the greatest part of
the day, and in it they are seen to the greatest advantage, especially
if they are at the height of 40 or 50 feet, and about 100 feet
distant. The great Ternat bat is always placed for shew with his wings
extended, by which means he is seen to the greatest disadvantage. The
representation given of him in your work is not exact, as they never
rest with their four feet on the ground. Both species are excellent
food, and have never been known to produce any bad effects, although
frequently eaten to excess; nor is that in the least surprising when we
consider they feed entirely on ripe fruits, the juices, flowers, and
according to Herodotus, "the exudations of trees."