[Illustration:  THE LORIS]

II.  CHEIROPTERA. Bats.—­The multitude of bats is one of the features of the evening landscape; they abound in every cave and subterranean passage, in the tunnels on the highways, in the galleries of the fortifications, in the roofs of the bungalows, and the ruins of every temple and building.  At sunset they are seen issuing from their diurnal retreats to roam through the twilight in search of crepuscular insects, and as night approaches and the lights in the rooms attract the night-flying lepidoptera, the bats sweep round the dinner-table and carry off their tiny prey within the glitter of the lamps.  Including the frugivorous section about sixteen species have been identified in Ceylon, and of these, two varieties are peculiar to the island.  The colours of some of them are as brilliant as the plumage of a bird, bright yellow, deep orange, and a rich ferruginous brown inclining to red.[1] The Roussette[2] of Ceylon (the “Flying-fox,” as it is usually called by Europeans) measures from three to four feet from point to point of its extended wings, and some of them have been seen wanting but a few inches of five feet in the alar expanse.  These sombre-looking creatures feed chiefly on ripe fruits, the guava, the plantain, and the rose-apple, and are abundant in all the maritime districts, especially at the season when the silk-cotton tree, the pulun-imbul,[3] is putting forth its flower-buds, of which they are singularly fond.  By day they suspend themselves from the highest branches, hanging by the claws of the hind legs, pressing the chin against the breast, and using the closed membrane attached to the forearms as a mantle to envelope the head.  At sunset launching into the air, they hover with a murmuring sound occasioned by the beating of their broad membranous wings, around the fruit trees, on which they feed till morning, when they resume their pensile attitude as before.  They are strongly attracted to the coco-nut trees during the period when toddy is drawn for distillation, and exhibit, it is said, at such times symptoms resembling intoxication.[4]

[Footnote 1: 
  Rhinolophus affinis? var. rubidus, Kelaart. 
  Hipposideros murinus, var. fulvus, Kelaart. 
  Hipposideros speoris, var. aureus, Kelaart. 
  Kerivoula picta, Pallas. 
  Scotophilus Heathii, Horsf.]

[Footnote 2:  Pteropus Edwardsii, Geoff.]

[Footnote 3:  Eriodendron orientale, Stead.]

[Footnote 4:  Mr. THWAITES, of the Royal Botanic Garden, at Kandy, in a recent letter, 19th Dec. 1858, gives the following description of a periodical visit of the pteropus to an avenue of fig-trees:—­“You would be much interested now in observing a colony of the pteropus bat, which has established itself for a season on some trees within sight of my bungalow.  They came about the same time last year, and, after staying a few weeks, disappeared:  I suppose they had demolished all the available food in the neighbourhood.  They are now busy of an evening eating the figs of Ficus elastica, of which we have a long avenue in the grounds, as I dare say you remember.