NIGERIAN FRUIT-BATS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Your readers may be interested in two rather unusual experiences of mine.
Yesterday I was at a town some six miles from here. Towards dusk I saw a number of what I at first thought were crows flying at about 500 ft., in a northerly direction. Their numbers were increasing every minute until, about ten minutes after I saw the leaders, the whole sky was filled with them. In every direction and right down to the horizon on all sides this vast and silent host was flapping its way north.
On bringing the glasses to bear on them I found that they were fruit-bats--a species very common in the lower Niger delta, where they feed on mangoes and other fruit. My boys also identified them as bats but could not tell me where they were going, or why. They said the bats came from the estuaries about fifteen miles away. There must have been many millions of them.
They all appeared to be of the same species and were about the size of jackdaws with a flight not unlike that of rooks : in fact, they reminded me of homing rooks. This evening many of them have passed over in a southerly direction, but nothing like the number going in the opposite direction yesterday.
The other experience occurred this evening as I was walking with my dog along a causeway crossing the waters of a wide creek. At one point, about half-way across, a pair of deep turquoise-blue swallows were perched on stumps standing out of the water. The presence of the dog either annoyed them or excited their curiosity to such an extent that they both dashed at his head, uttering angry little cries. They kept up the attack till we were nearly across the creek, always just missing the dog and flinging up for the next attack. They even stooped at him when he was less than two yards from me.
May I conclude by expressing my gratitude to Sir William Beach Thomas for his campaign against the brutality of steel traps ? That such devilish contraptions still exist in England is a foul blot that must be wiped out by public outcry.—! am, Sir, &c., L. TRAVERS CHTJ BB. -Ogonolcom, Aboada District, Owerri Province, S. Nigeria.
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