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Bats are distinguished from all other mammals by possessing ¢he power of true flight like 
that of birds, their fore-limbs being specially modified for this purpose, resulting in the order 
to which they belong being appropriately named Chiropteray or hand-winged. 
Certain other mammals such as the flying squirrels of genus Sciuropterus and the flying 
phalangers have a spurious flight, which is nothing more than an extension of an upward or 
downward leap by the aid of parachute-like expansions of the skin of the sides of the body, 
and cannot be extended upward beyond the limits of the impetus of the original leap. 
The essential characteristic of all bats is their power of flight, and so far as we know no 
clue has been diseovered by scientists among the extinct fauna of which we have knowledge 
which in any way connects them with other mammals, but it has been found that, in their 
essential structure, bats are so closely allied to the Insectivores, such as shrews and moles, that 
many naturalists express little doubt of their derivation from the ancestral forms of that order, 
and think it probable that the power of true flight was developed gradually from spurious flight. 
Like many of our smaller mammals, classification has been based largely on dental characters, 
1 which differ very materially in the genera living on various foods. 
The great majority of bats feed solely on insects and have their cheek-teeth furnished with 
a number of sharp cusps; the fruit-eating bats comprising the so-called flying foxes or fruit-bats 
of the warmer regions of the Old World, and among them the largest representatives of the order 
are characterized by the molars having nearly or quite smooth crowns, elongated from back to 
front and divided by a deep longitudinal groove; while the blood-sucking bats of South America 
have the front teeth specially modified for piercing the skin of animals. 
The bats often locally called “ leather-bats” or “ flittermice,” in which our particular interest 
is centred, inhabit the temperate regions, are insect-feeding, and belong to the family Vesper- 
tilionids; these bats, being dependent for their nourishment upon a full supply of insects, must 
in winter either migrate to warmer regions or hibernate. 
To what extent some of our bats migrate appears to be imperfectly understood, but that 
bats migrate is an established fact; one of the earliest references made on the subject is by 
our great authority, Dr. Dobson, in his Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the British Museum. 
It is claimed that of European species probably with one exception they hibernate, but on 
the American Continent we find in the “Transaction of the Royal Society of Canada,” V., 
‘Section V., page 85, where Dr. C. Hart Merriam shows conclusive evidence of two of the 
American bats, Lasionycteris noctivagans and Lasiurus cinerius, have regular periods of 
migration, and Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., in his revision of the North American bats of the family 
Vespertilionidse, records his observations at Highland Light, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, during 
4 the months of August and September, 1890 and 1891, where he observed the migration of the 
Same two species together with Lasiurus borealis. From these and other recorded observations 
it is fair to assume that the migration of bats is probably as definite as to dates and paths 
as that of birds. 
Bats seldom feed on the ground, most species feeding and drinking on the wing. Dr. Merriam 
observes that “all North American bats, except when their habits have been modified by 
proximity to man, may be classed as cave-dwelling or tree-dwelling, according to the places 
in which they spend the day; as a rule the cave-dwelling species live in large colonies, while the 
tree-dwelling live singly or in small companies.” 
It is estimated by the highest authorities that little more than one-half of the living species 
are known to science at the present time, and it may be interesting to trace to a small extent 
the history and development of the classification of bats from the earliest naturalists. 
Linneus in 1758 knew seven bats, all of which he placed in Vespertilio, the fourth and last 
genus of the order Primates. In 1808, as recorded by Tiedemann, the order Chiroptera had 
been recognized, while with the addition of the flying lemur the genera was only seven and the 
species fourteen. 
The real foundation for our present classification was laid by Gray in 1821, when he 
published the first of his many papers on bats; Gray excluded the flying lemur, recognized 
the two main subdivisions of the order made by Goldfuss in 1820, and applied to the names 
of families the system of nomenclature now in use. 
In 1827 Lesson in his “ Manuel de Mammalogie”’ once more associated the flying lemur with 
the bats, making the group a division of the Carnivores. 
