29-i 



STOEIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



€^t %\lt 



ERHAPS I owe an apology to my read- 

 ers, for introducing the bat among 

 birds. It is very true that, in most 

 V respects, it much more nearly resembles 

 / a quadruped than it does a bird. It has 

 the power of flying, after a fashion ; but that 

 is almost the only bird-like feature about it. 

 The bat, you know, has four legs. That cir- 

 cumstance alone is enough to give the family a 

 title among quadrupeds, to say nothing about 

 its want of feathers. The truth is the bat has 

 not a very good right to a place among birds, 

 and although there was formerly some differ- 

 ence of opinion in this matter, most naturalists, 

 at the present day, rank this singular race of 

 animals among quadrupeds. Still the great 

 mass of people regard them as properly be- 

 longing to the rank of birds, and so, with the 



