WHAT ARE BATS? 



535 



made soveral efforts to fly off with it ; but, finding it must needs stay within the 

 precincts of the cage, it soon hung by the hind-legs to one side of its prison, 

 and, after sucking its victim till no more blood was left, commenced devouring 

 it, and soon left nothing but the head and some portions of the limbs. The 

 voidings observed very shortly afterward in its cage resembled clotted blood, 

 which will explain the statement of Stedman and others concerning masses of 

 congealed blood being always observed near a patient who has been attacked 

 by a South African vampire. Such, then, is the mode of subsistence of the 

 Megaderma." 



Bats are most widely diffused over the surface of the globe, as 

 their powers of flight might lead ns to expect. Even Australia so 

 very peculiar in the character of the other beasts which inhabit it 

 possesses bats belonging to both of the bat families which are found 

 in our own island. 



But, although the whole group of bats, and also that family to 

 which most English bats belong the Vespertilionidce are thus 

 widely distributed, the geographical limits of some families of bats 

 are very sharply defined. 



To appreciate these facts it is necessary to be acquainted with the 

 geographical areas into which the surface of our globe may be divided, 

 each considerable tract of the earth's surface having its more or less 

 peculiar animal population, or fauna, as it has its indigenous plants, 

 that is, its^ora. The earth's surface is divisible into six zoological 

 regions : 



1. The Palcmrctic region, or Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, 

 and Africa north of the Sahara. 



2. The Ethiopian region, or Africa south of the Sahara, and in- 

 cluding Madagascar and also Arabia, which, geologically, is part of 

 Africa, 



3. The Oriental region, or Asia south of the Himalayas, with 

 Southern China and the Philippine Islands and Indian Archipelago as 

 far as the island of Bali. 



4. The Australian region, or Australia, New Zealand, the less re- 

 mote Pacific Islands, and those of the Indian Archipelago from New 

 Guinea up to Lombok. 



5. The Neotropical region, or South America, together with tropi- 

 cal North America and the West Indies. 



6. The Nearctic region, or temperate North America and Green- 

 land. 



Now, the whole group of flying-foxes is strictly confined to the 

 tropical regions of the Old World and Australia. In the same way 

 the family of leaf-nosed bats, like those of England the Rhinolophidae, 

 is limited to the Old World, though reaching there much higher 

 latitudes than do the flying-foxes. 



The group to which the vampires belong the Phyllostomidce 

 is strictly confined to the Neotropical and Nearctic regions; and the 



