Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/218

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This large "Flying Fox" is very plentiful throughout the north, and especially in the neighbourhood of great rivers, where it literally swarms.

It is in the mangroves on the long tidal creeks—so numerous in Northern Australia—or in the bamboo jungles along the great water-courses that the animals spend the day, assembled in flocks numbering several thousands. Hanging on the branches of the trees by their hind legs, and also clinging to each other in the same way, they almost entirely cover the trees in their camping grounds.

Such a "Flying Fox camp" is never perfectly quiet, and even in the middle of the day numbers are flitting about in and around the trees uttering their hoarse shrieks, and the cause of this restlessness may be found in the fact that one individual is not able to settle down in this enormous mass of animals without disturbing others. The buzzing noise issuing from one of these camps when heard at a distance might be compared to that of a gigantic beehive, and the clamour of the colony when disturbed is deafening. Thousands of these animals stack themselves one on top of the other in such masses that the thick limbs of large trees are split and broken by their weight, and when approached by man or any other enemy the individuals in the centre of these hordes of living creatures are prevented from quickly getting away by those hanging outside.

The native hunter of the woods takes advantage of this latter fact, and, on discovering a "Flying Fox camp," runs quickly up, and, bashing away at the struggling bats with a stick or bamboo-rod, easily secures large quantities of this highly esteemed game amongst the aborigines.

Although by no means numerous, at least one of these camps may be found on any large river, and its numbers comprise nearly all the individuals of a considerable district. At sundown the bats commence travelling, sometimes great distances, to reach a patch of the forest where the Eucalypti are in blossom, the flowers of these trees forming their principal food. A constant string of animals is then for hours issuing from the camp, and the observer who posts himself on their roving route may to a certain extent form an idea of their numbers.