flying-fox

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n. a gigantic Australian bat, Pteropus poliocephalus, Temm. It has a fetid odour anddoes great damage to fruits, and is especially abundant in NewSouth Wales, though often met with in Victoria. Described, notnamed, in first extract.


1793. Governor Hunter, `Voyage,' p. 507:

«The head of this bat strongly resembles that of a fox, andthe wings of many of them extend three feet ten inches. . . .[Description of one domesticated.] . . . They are very fat,and are reckoned by the natives excellent food. . . . It wassupposed more than twenty thousand of them were seen within thespace of one mile.»

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.p. 315:

«One flying fox is an immense bat, of such a horrificappearance, that no wonder one of Cook's honest tars shouldtake it for the devil when encountering it in the woods.»

1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 310:

«. . . a flying fox, which one of them held in his hand. Itwas, in fact, a large kind of bat, with the nose resembling incolour and shape that of a fox, and in scent it was exactlysimilar to it. The wing was that of a common English bat, andas long as that of a crow, to which it was about equal in thelength and circumference of its body.»

1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 97:

«Some of the aborigines feed on a large bat popularly called`the flying fox.' . . We found the filthy creatures, hangingby the heels in thousands, from the higher branches of thetrees.»

1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 102:

«The shrill twitter of the flying fox, or vampire bat, in thebush around us.»

1871. Gerard Krefft, `Mammals of Australia':

«The food on which the `Foxes' principally live when gardenfruit is not in season, consists of honey-bearing blossoms andthe small native figs abounding in the coast-range scrubs. . . .These bats are found on the east coast only, but during verydry seasons they occur as far west as the neighbourhood ofMelbourne.»

1881. A.C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. ii. p. 20:

«A little further on they came to a camp of flying foxes.The huge trees on both sides of the river are actually blackwith them. The great bats hang by their hooked wings to everyavailable branch and twig, squealing and quarrelling.The smell is dreadful. The camp extends for a length of threemiles. There must be millions upon millions of them.»

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

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