during the day, hanging from the branches of the
trees which they select as their regular resting-place, and taking
wing at sunset, fly off frequently to great distances in search of
their favorite articles of food; for they by no means devour
indiscriminately any kind of fruit, but show a distinct preference for
particular sorts, generally selecting such as are also prized by their
human competitors. Hence they often do considerable damage in
plantations of fruit trees, as when they meet with articles that suit
taste, they seem, like some human gourmands, not to know when to leave
off eating. Of one of the smaller Indian species, the Margined Fruit
Bat, Mr. Dobson obtained a living specimen in Calcutta, and he gives
the following account of its voracious appetite:--He gave it "a ripe
banana, which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly two ounces. The
animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, fell upon the fruit,
seized it between the thumbs and the index fingers, and took large
mouthfuls out of it, opening the mouth to the fullest extent with
extreme voracity. In the space of three hours the whole fruit was
consumed. Next morning the Bat was killed, and found to weigh one
ounce, half the weight of the food eaten in three hours! Indeed, the
animal when eating seemed to be a kind of living mill"--so
continuously does its food pass through it.

From the statements of some writers, it would appear that although
these Bats live chiefly upon fruits, they occasionally, like many
other frugivorous animals, diversify their diet with animal food,
devouring insects of various kinds, caterpillars, birds' eggs, and
even young birds, while there seems to be some reason to believe that
one species even feeds upon shell-fish which it picks up upon the
seashore.

The fruit-eating Bats of this group are not found in the warmer parts
of America, but some American Bats feed chiefly upon fruits, while
many of the large essentially insectivorous species which occur there
vary their diet more or less with fruits, and also occasionally attack
and devour other vertebrate animals. Some of them--but it is still
very doubtful how many--have another habit connected with their
feeding, which renders them very decidedly objectionable, namely, that
of inflicting wounds upon birds and mammals, even including man
himself, and sucking up the blood that flows from them. This charge
has been brought against many Bats of South and Central America