File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17538952914).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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BATS OF THE BELGIAX CONGO 561 violence sweep across the countrv al- most every day. A steady temj)erature of al)0ut one hundred degrees, together with tlie nioisture-hiden atmosphere, accounts for the I'ijiening of fruits tiiroughout the year. Upon these fruits the fruit bats depend entirely for their sustenance, but they have to movc>aliout continually in search of a new su))pl)'. Nowhere else in iVfrica can they find such ideal conditions, yet these two hun- dred and fifty thousand square miles of uninter- rupted forest are inhabited by only twenty-five differ- ent kinds of fruit bats. Most of these are very rare. In every region one species at least is common, but on account of fre- quent migrations, a few other kinds may appear for a short time in great numbers. From the rest of Africa only a dozen more forms are knowni, but these occur everywhere as oc- casional strag- glers. As here well-defined seasonal changes bring- about alternating scarcity and abun- dance of food supply, they are forced to migrate. In the coastal districts, how- ever, the cultivation of imported fruit trees has altered the conditions so as to make fruit available at all times. This allows a few fruit bats to become resi- dents. Fruit bats (Pteropodida?) are re- stricted to Africa and tropical Asia.
Text Appearing After Image:
The soft folds of a bat's wing inemlirane func- tion as umbrellas during the numerous rain storms in the Congo forest; at other times they protect the bat's eyes from the glare of the sun. Wlien a bat is sleeping we can see little of tlie khaki-colored bunch of fur, but when he is dis- turbed the finely chiseled fox-like liead emerges quickly, on the lookout for danger 'flicy are absent from South America, which has, Jiowever, the blood-sucking \am))ir('s ( Desmodontida^). These are not found in Africa, and yet they, more than all others, have helped to in- crease the e.vil fame and superstitious beliefs about bats all over the world. Fi'uit bats have nowhere well-estab- lished roosts but are naturally more common in dis- tricts covered by rain forest than in the more arid regions, with well- marked rainy and dry seasons. Fruit is of course scar- cest after the an- nual fires have eaten slowly across the country and left the shrubs and trees leafless and the fields in such a barren con- dition that a com- ))arison with the effects of heavy frosts in temper- ate climates sug- gests itself. Within a very short time the grass sprouts again and flowers often cover the trees before the leaves have ap- peared. It is of great importance to the fruit bats that only a few degrees north of the ecfuator the seasons are the reverse of what they are at that time south of the equator. Furthermore, the essential features of the flora remain nearly the same over the entire eastern and southern Ethiopian subregions. Thus the fruit bats of these districts. I)y adjusting their migratory flights, might easily escape the unpleasant and otherwise* inevitalde conditions of an-

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