shufeldt] NATURE-STUDY AND COMMON ANIMALS 253 



as these, as far as they are furnished by me, will, in time, constitute 

 a series of pictorial aids to the field and school-room studies of the 

 nature classes everywhere in this country. 



Very few living bats have ever been photographed by me, and 

 the onlv species with which I have been thoroughly successful is 

 the common Dusky or Carolina Bat (Eptesicus fuscus). Of this 

 widelv distributed species in the United States I have made some 

 eight or ten life size negatives, in various attitudes. One of the 

 best of these is here reproduced in Figure i. It shows a male 

 individual suspended from the broken branch of an old tree. Its 

 lower parts are toward the observer, and the curious way in 

 which this very interesting little animal curls its tail over the 

 limb is well seen. Bats of this species have a length of three or 

 four inches, an extent of one foot, with a tail one and a half inches 

 long. The fine fur is of an earth-brown color, and the tail (inter- 

 femoral) membrane is furred at the base only, while its wings are 

 entirely naked. 



I have made life photographs of nearly, if not of all, of our 

 American quails. The one shown in Figure 2 is a beautiful 

 example (male) of the Chestnut-bellied Scaled Quail or Partridge 

 of the West. Note that it has black emarginations to all the 

 feathers of the breast and under parts, in which latter locality 

 a chestnut area is found — hence one of its names. This beautiful 

 bird also has a soft, erectile crest, the central portion of which is 

 white. Out West, many hunters call this the "Blue Quail." It 

 is the CalHpepla squamata castanogastris of science. 



Most young students of our animals are familiar with the 

 common Box Tortoise (Cistudo Carolina) (Terepenef). This beau- 

 tiful representative of the American chelonians is very abundant in 

 some parts of Eastern United States, and it is remarkable for its 

 great variation in colors and form. The specimen shown in Figure 

 3 was taken in northern Virginia, and is a very old individual. 

 It lays white, ellipsoidal eggs, as do so many reptiles. I once 

 published the photograph of the very young specimen of this 

 species that had two heads; but then, two-headed specimens of 

 many other kinds of animals are found to exist, and I have seen 

 cases of it in snakes, lizards, fish, cats, dogs, antelope, ruffed 

 grouse, cows, and even in our own species. Any vertebrate may 

 furnish such examples. This box tortoise can draw itself entirely 

 within its shell, closing up the same with the lids formed by the 



