I^^TRODUCTIO^. 



Among the numerous agents ■which Nature employs for re- 

 stricting the excessive increase of the insect worki, the bats hohl a 

 conspicuous position. Eminently adapted to an animal regimen, 

 the vast majority of these animals are exclusively insectivorous 

 in their habits. Mosquitos, gnats, moths, and even the heavily 

 mailed nocturnal Coleoptei^a, fall victims in large numbers to their 

 voracious appetites. Certain members of the order, such as 

 Flying Foxes (Pteropodid^), are strictly frugivorous, it is true; 

 and others, as the Dog-bat of Surinam (Noctula leporiva), 

 classified as an insect-eating bat, partakes occasionally of fruit 

 in addition to its more animal diet ; none of the species found 

 in this country, however, are known to subsist on any other than 

 insect food. In this respect they hold a decided relationship to 

 certain birds, and it is interesting to observe how, under differ- 

 ent circumstances, these widely separated animals serve us to the 

 same end. The functions which the latter perform during the 

 day, the former assume in the evening. The latter prey upon 

 the diurnal insects, while the former feed exclusively upon the 

 crepuscular and nocturnal kinds. The disappearance of the birds 

 of day is a signal for the advent of the dusky host, which, as it 

 were, temporarily relieve from duty their more brilliant rivals in 

 guarding the interests of Nature. 



But, while thus connected with birds in their position in the 

 world's economy, bats have none of that grace of form, or beauty 

 of coloring so characteristic of the others. Their bodies are 

 clumsy and repulsive ; their hues are dull and unattractive — nor 

 can the eye dwell with pleasure upon their grotesque and awk- 



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