32 THE BAT. 



bird." The skin of the wing is extremely thin and is generally devoid 

 of hair on both sides. It extends not only between the fingers, but from 

 the last finger lo the posterior extremity, and from this to the tail, when 

 one exists. The toes of the hind feet are short and furnished with 

 claws, by which the bats suspend themselves from the trees or Avails on 

 which they rc.'>t, hanging with their head downwards. They walk with 

 slowness and diflicully when placed on the ground ; the wings are fold- 

 ed np ; and they rest upon the hind feet and upon the claw of the 

 thumb, by which they crawl forwards, pushing on first one side and 

 then the other. But they can climb up perpendicular surfaces with con- 

 siderable agility. 



They live on insects and fruits — are nocturnal in their habits and 

 hybernate in caves and ruins. They spend the winter in a state of 

 torpidity, suspended in some dark hole by the feet. During this state, 

 the ctrculation is so slow, that it is hardly perceptible. There is a total 

 suspension of the power of the digestive organs. From the experiments 

 of Spallanzani, it would almost appear, that a total suspension of the 

 vital energy takes place in animals, during this state of torpor. He kept 

 a torpid bat four hours in carbonic acid gas, the thermometer marking 

 twelve degrees : yet it continued to live in this, which is so very dele- 

 terious, that a bird and a rat, which he exposed to its influence at the 

 same time, perished instantaneously. 



The bat is apparently a very disproportionate animal, and yet per- 

 fect in its kind ; it is ugly and yet if it were otherwise, it would not an- 

 swer the cud of its creation. Its head is very much deformed. In some 

 species the nose is hardly visible. The eyes are sunk near the tip of 

 the car and arc confounded with the cheeks. In others, the ears are as 

 long as the body, or else the face is twisted in the shape of a horse-shoe 

 and the nose covered with a kind of crust. Their motion in the air is 

 with less propriety termed a flight, than a kind of uncertain flutter, 

 which they seem to execute by struggles and in an awkward manner. 

 In tlius flying about in the evening they seize all the gnats, moths and 

 other nocturnal insects that come in their way, which they SAvallow 

 entire. 



Tiieir eyes arc small, but they see, hence the phrase, "blind as a 

 bat" is not true. Their hearing is very keen, and they can ditect their 

 flight with perfect correctness even W'hen deprived of their sight. Spal- 

 lanzani tried numerous experiments, and after depriving bats of their 

 eyes and so far as possible of hearing also, they were still capable of 

 directing their fliglit with security and accuracy, finding their way 

 through passages Just large enough to admit thejn, without coming in 



