Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/52

 tinted a little with yellow or orange. Those, however, that grow in more open country or on the exposed edges of jungles have bright yellow or orange coloured fruits.

In the heathy country bordering the Pahang River, I found a species of Willughbeia which bore exceedingly pleasant, sinall, oval fruits of a bright apricot-yellow colour and very conspicuous. It grew in low thickets in open sandy country, where monkeys do not go, as they have an objection to travelling far on the ground on account of the risks from tigers, wild cats, dogs and other enemies, The conspicuous fruited Willughbeia had probably developed its showy colour to attract birds, of which there were many large fruit-eating kinds, and the reduction in size of this fruit is also an assistance in dispersal as even the hornbill can hardly manage to carry a globose fruit as large as that of Willughbeia edulis.

The various species of Dialium, known to the natives as Kranji, are big trees with ovoid black pods, each containing one hard seed which is enclosed in a somewhat acid but pleasantly flavoured pithy substance. The monkeys are very fond of these and one often sees the remains of the fruit on the ground. The fruit is unfortunately relished by the monkeys before it is ripe so that very often the whole crop is gathered green by them and so destroyed, and here I may call attention. to the value of acidity of unripe fruits in preventing animals from eating them too soon, which would soon exterminate the trees by destroying the seeds.

Though many of the fruits eaten by animals are sweet or pleasant to our taste, a large proportion of those very popular with monkeys are either tasteless or nauseous-often astringent in flavour to us. Some may even be poisonous as Strychnos.

Cheiroptera.—There are several kinds of fruit-eating bats in the Malay Peninsula, but of their habits little is known. The largest kind, Pteropus edulis, is very irregular in its appearance. In some years there are hardly any to be seen in Singapore, but some years ago there were enormous numbers roosting every day in the Garden jungle. They fly great distances and may be seen far out at sea. They eat great quantities of fruit of different kinds. Cynopterus marginatus