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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The use of this membrane, according to Dr. Dobson, is to serve as 

 a tactile organ (like the wings) ; and this is the more probable, seeing 

 that that family of leaf-nosed bats which is represented in England 

 have the smallest eyes, and are devoid of a tragus or inner part of 

 the seemingly double ear before spoken of. 



Bats are divisible into two great groups. One of them includes 

 all the insect-eating bats (with or without nose-leaves), more or less 



like the bats which inhabit this country. They have almost always 

 teeth such as those already described, often a very large tragus to the 

 ear, and a stomach short and rounded, or at least not prolonged at 

 its pyloric (or more specially digestive) extremity. 



These bats are subdivided into various families, three of which 

 alone immediately concern us : 1. The Vespertilionidce, which in- 



