BATS AND THEIR YOUNG. 



645 



bats, when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by- 

 rising with great ease from the floor. ..." 



So far, we have contented ourselves with treating of bats simply 

 as such, and without reference to their internal structure, their rela- 

 tionship with other animals, or even their differences among them- 

 selves ; much less have we approached the deeper questions of their 

 origin and destiny the probabilities as to their ancestry, and the pos- 

 sibilities as to their more or less remote descendants. 



In the same way the astronomer may, for a time, speak of a comet 

 only as a certain well-known celestial phenomenon, which may be as 

 obvious to the unaided vision of the ignorant as to his own. But, 

 sooner or later, he cannot refrain from discussing its chemical and 

 physical condition, its course through space, its relations to other 

 comets and to the stars, and, finally, its probable origin from nebu- 

 lous matter, and its possible transformation into a world like our own. 



The comparison may be carried one step farther. For, to the igno- 

 rant and superstitious the sudden apparition of a blazing comet has 

 often been a portent of disaster, while even the intelligent shrink 

 with aversion from the flitting bat, and make comparisons with evil 

 spirits. 



Fig. 3. Vampire-Bat op South America (Vampirus specti-um). 



It must be admitted that most bats are " uncanny " in their aspect, 

 and unfriendly in disposition ; while the legends of blood-thirsty vam- 

 pires have only too much foundation in fact. 



But it is only fair to them (the bat family) to admit that the num- 

 ber of species which thus injure men and the larger animals is very 

 small ; and that, while all of our own bats, and most of those of other 

 lands, are fierce devourers of insects, and use their sharp teeth for de- 

 fense against their captors, there are many kinds, especially the larger 

 (Roussettes, etc.), which live almost wholly upon fruits, and are, more- 



