66 MAMMALS

ing them, hearing them, or touching them, as we
understand the meaning of touch, seems to be chiefly
concentrated in the wing membranes, in the ears, and
in the so-called ‘leaf’ that looks like a mask on the
face, and serves the same purpose as a cat’s whiskers.
Bats are not blind; on the contrary, their eyes are
remarkably bright and intelligent.

The naturalist, rather curiously, divides his bats
into large ones and small ones, the large ones being
all fruit-eaters and all natives of the eastern hemi-
sphere. These can be readily distinguished from the
others owing to their having always three joints in
the second finger, and generally a claw on that finger
as well as the claw on the thumb. The other bats
never have the extra claw, and have either one or
two joints in the finger. Another distinction is that
the molar teeth of the fruit-bats have smooth crowns,
with a longitudinal groove, while the molars of the
others have cusped crowns and cross grooves. It is
also stated that, when a fruit-bat goes to sleep, he
hangs himself up by one leg, while all the other bats
hang themselves up by two; but as there are four
hundred and fifty species of bats altogether, it is
probable that this is a rule not without exceptions.

Fruit-bats, or fox-bats, as they are sometimes
called, are found in enormous numbers in India,
Australia, and the Polynesian Islands, some of the
species feeding quite as much on flowers as on fruit.
Many of them migrate, as birds do, and return to the
same spots year after year, as their food becomes fit
for them. All these bats, which are also known as
flying foxes, have no tails, and belong to the genus