A GROUP OF WATER BATS. 



CHEIROPTERA; 



OR, WING-HANDED ANIMALS. 



'HE Cheiroptera, literally Wing-handed Animals, are placed as ranking next after 

 the Primates, though later authorities regard them as representing features of 

 a more inferior grade. Over four hundred species of bats have been described, 

 being distributed over the entire globe. In the family Phyllostomidse thirty -one 

 genera and sixty species are recorded. These are the leaf -nosed Bats, and are 

 confined to the range east of the Andes, in Chili. The blood-sucking Vampires 

 belong to this group. 



In the group called the Short-headed Bats (Noctilionidce), there are fourteen genera and 

 fifty species. They range from Mexico and California to Chili. 



The family Vespertilionidce embraces eighteen genera and two hundred species, inhabit- 

 ing various parts of the world ; in America as far north as Hudson's Bay and the Columbia 

 River. 



From the earliest times in which the science of zoology attracted the attention of observant 

 men, the discovery of a true systematic arrangement has been one of the great objects of those 

 who studied animal life, and the forms on which it is outwardly manifested. Among the more 

 conspicuous of those enigmatical beings are the strange and wierd-like animals which are 

 popularly known by the terse title of Bats, and, scientifically, by the more recondite name of 

 Cheiroptera. 



A most remarkable example of the occurrence of bats in large numbers is recorded in the 

 seventh volume of the Smithsonian Institution, in the form of a letter from M. Figaniere, 

 Portuguese Minister, resident in or near Washington. He had purchased a piece of property 

 at Seneca Point, in Maryland. The house had remained unoccupied some time, and had 

 become the abode of bats. A detailed account is given of how much trouble the creatures 

 gave the owner before they would yield up their domiciles. "Upon actual count of those killed 



