224 I N A G U A 



of the bats are the insectivorous shrews and the moles. The 

 shrews are almost all nocturnal, the moles irrevocably so. It 

 seems a far cry from a mole burrowing in its damp tunnel of 

 earth, down among the beetle grubs and the garden worms, to 

 a bat with its tissue wings high among the stars. Yet in their 

 general anatomy and particularly in their dentition there is a 

 very marked affinity. Somewhere along the long road of evo- 

 lution, marked with the milestones of failure and success, with 

 the coming and going of a hundred species and genera, is a 

 forked trail, one side leading into the airy spaces of the sky, 

 the other into the depths of the clinging soil. The bats took 

 one path, the moles the other. 



Few accomplishments are attained without sacrifice; the 

 bats have paid their penalty to nature. For the privilege of 

 flight under the glowing lights of the evening sky and for the 

 advantage of being able to pursue their insect prey or seek the 

 fruit they subsist upon instead of crawling through the mud 

 and leaves like their relatives, they have relinquished the ability 

 to walk. A bat on the ground is a caricature of the creature 

 that dodges among the clouds. In order to perfect the mecha- 

 nism of flight they have been forced to reverse the position of 

 their knees which are turned outwards and backwards Hke our 

 elbows. Hence the best most bats can do is an awkward shuffle, 

 although a few such as the Vampire still retain a mouse-like 

 quality. They have also paid another penalty, for the reversal 

 of the knees has made it impracticable for them to stand up- 

 right. From birth to death they must hang head downwards, 

 forever suspended between heaven and earth. 



Once I kept a number of little brown bats in a cage through 

 a northern winter. From the first cold days of November to 

 the warmth of early April they hung immobile, head down- 

 wards. At times their huddled bodies were covered with a coat- 

 ing of hoarfrost until they looked like rows of suspended 



