31 



A BAT AND HER YOrXG, 



(VESPERTILIO.) 



Last summer, a boy brought me a family of bats, consisting of tlie 

 mother and three children. The parent was clinging to a twig of cherry, 

 whilst the young, which were about an inch in length, were hanging to 

 the teats of the mother. I was interested in this family and for 12| 

 cents the whole concern became my property. I was deliglited with the 

 maternal solicitude of the parent — nothing would alarm her, or induce 

 her to abandon her tenderly cherished offspring. The boy had treated 

 her roughly; he had carried her several miles from the country; crowds 

 of noisy urchins had gathered around him — they had poked sticks into 

 her ribs and all sorts of "fun" at her, but she would not leave her child- 

 ren. I took her in for pity's sake, as well as for other reasons, and 

 thought that such fidelity ought to be rewarded, t put her into a neat 

 mouse cage, and determined to devote much attention to the rearing of 

 my interesting charge. She immediately suspended herself at the side 

 and her young followed. I presumed she was hungry. I tempted her 

 appetite with every insect "delicacy of the season," but she would not 

 eat. I held flies to her nose, and made them buzz about her ears, but 

 she heeded them not. I concluded she was modest and would not eat 

 in the presence of strangers, and retired, but the food remained un- 

 touched. "She will eat at night," thought I ; but next moining 1 discov- 

 ered that she had fasted. I was beginning to be alarmed. I plainly 

 perceived by the motions of the young that she had been milked dry, 

 and if she took no food, no more of the lacteal fluid could be elabora- 

 ted, and the young, at any rate, must perish. I returned in the evening, 

 and lo ! Mrs. Verpertilio had died ! two of the youngsters lay breathing 

 theit- last — the third was still trying to draw nutriment from the dead 

 mother's breast! It was a painful sight. I thought of a description of 

 the plague I had once read, in which infants were seen still endeavoring 

 to suck from the corpses of their mothers. What could I do ? I put 

 an end to the misery of the survivor and preserved the whole family in 

 spirits. 



The bats belong to a slirps called Cheiroptera, signifying wing-hand- 

 ed. Their distinguishing character consists in a fold of the skin com- 

 mencing at the side of the neck, which extends between the fore feet 

 and toes, supporting them in the air and enabling thenti to fly. These 

 singular animals would at first sight seem to possess a middle state be- 

 tween quadrupeds and birds. An old writer says, "it is too mucli of a 

 bird to be properly a beast, and too much of a beast to be properly a 



