FLYING-FOX or the name applied to the fruit-eating bats of the genus Pteropus, which contains more than half the family Pteropidae. This genus is confined to the tropi cal regions of the eastern hemisphere and Australia. It comprises numerous species, a considerable proportion of which occur in the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The flying-foxes are the largest of the bats, the kalong of Java (Pteropus edulis) measuring about a foot in length, and the wings measuring 5ft. across. Flying-f oxes are gregarious, nocturnal bats, suspending themselves during the day head-downwards from the branches of trees with their wings wrapped about them. They are very good eating, something like hare. Towards evening these bats fly off in companies to the vil lage plantations, where they feed on all kinds of fruit, doing much damage. The flying-fox of India (P. medius) is a smaller species, but is found in great numbers wherever fruit is to be had in the Indian peninsula.