220 I N A G U A 



striving to bite my fingers. The great tissue wings wrapped 

 about my hands, clawed to get free. I held the creature close 

 to the light. It had the most gargoylish, yet human looking, face 

 I have ever seen. None of the frowning stone figures on the 

 high parapets of Notre Dame in Paris are more weird. And it 

 had a most peculiar nose. A leathery tissue resembling a fleur- 

 de-lis stood up stiffly on the end of it. The tissue must have been 

 highly sensitive, for when I touched it the bat went into a 

 perfect frenzy of squeaking. Its rage went beyond the bounds 

 of mere anger; it vibrated from the end of its ludicrous nose 

 to the tips of its recurved toes; its face twisted into unbelievable 

 contortions; the teeth chattered like castanets. The eyes were 

 malevolent, with an evil glint that belied their true character. 

 For these bats— and most bats— are really harmless creatures, 

 mammals which ask no more than to be let alone. 



From its peculiar nose I identified it as a leaf -nosed bat be- 

 longing to the genus Artibeus— one of a tropical family related 

 to the blood-sucking vampires. It is by means of their strangely 

 convoluted noses and their ears, which are equipped with long 

 delicate lobes and tissues, that the bats are able to find their 

 way about in the dark. The wing tissues are also extremely 

 sensitive. These are richly supplied with blood vessels and 

 nerve endings; a bat may be said to be alive to its finger tips. 

 I was reminded of the now classic experiment of that inde- 

 fatigable Eighteenth Century naturalist, Lazaro Spallanzani. 

 This incurably curious person filled a dark room with an in- 

 tricate maze of threads and wires extending in all directions, 

 and so arranged them that there was just enough space for a 

 bat to pass between the obstructions. He then operated on a 

 number of bats so they could not see or smell. Although the 

 creatures flew back and forth for several hours in the room, 

 at no time did they so much as touch a wire. The wing tissues 

 and the nose and ear appendages are attuned to minute vibra- 



