1865.] REVIEW — ALLEN ON BATS. 145 



■with ideas of the horrible and the unknown. In olden times, 

 when the imagination of the people exceeded the accuracy of their 

 observations, it was one of the numerous monsters inhabiting their 

 caverns and forests. It has done service in many a legend ; its 

 bite was fatal ; it was the emblem of haunted houses ; its wino;s 

 bore up the dragon slain by St. George. 



It is easy to trace from this early impression the permanent 

 position that the bat, as an emblem of the repulsive, held in let- 

 ters and the arts. It is mentioned in the book of Leviticus as 

 one of the unclean things. Its image is rudely carved upon the 

 tombs of the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks consecrated it to 

 Proserpine. It is part of the infernal potion of the witches in 

 Macbeth, while Ariel employs it in his erratic flights. In art, its 

 wings have entered largely into the creation of those composite 

 horrors, evil spirits ; nor have modern artists escaped from the 

 absurdity of encumbering the Satan of Holy Writ with like 

 appendages.* 



Of this association with the monstrous the intelligent observer 

 ceases to take note when the finer beauties of structure develop 

 themselves under his gaze. Upon acquaintance, he learns, per- 

 haps with surprise, that, in anatomical and physiological peculiari- 

 ties, and zoological position, the bat is a subject for study worthy 

 of the attention of the most contemplative. Indeed no order of ani- 

 mals is more interesting, and none has received greater attention 

 from the hands of savans. 



The early pioneers of natural history were far astray in their 

 endeavors to correctly define the nature and position of the bat. 



" Some authors place bats among the birds, because they are able 

 to fly through the air ; while others assign them a position among 

 the quadrupeds, because they can walk on the earth. Some again, 

 who admitted the mammalian nature of the creatures, scattered 

 them at intervals through the scale of animated beings, heedless 

 of any distinction excepting the single characteristic in which 

 they took their stand, and by which they judged every animal. 



* To this fancy of the ancients of placing the wings of a bat upon de- 

 mons, is happily opposed the sweet conceits of poets in adorning the figures 

 of angels and cherubim with the wing3 of birds. The wing of a bat is 

 sombre and angular ; that of a bird is of delicate hues, and replete with 

 curves. It is therefore poetic justice to have the one become an emblem 

 of the infernal, as the other is an expression of the heavenly form. 



Vol, II. k No. 2. 



