298 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



The largest bat in' the world is supposed to 

 be the great bat of Madagascar. It is nearly 

 four feet broad, when the wings are spread. 

 Some people have called it the flying fox. 

 When this bat rests at night, it sticks itself to 

 the tops of the tallest trees, and hangs -with 

 its head downward. 



A celebrated naturalist once made numer- 

 ous experiments on the bat, and he became 

 convinced that these animals possessed some 

 additional sense, by which they are enabled 

 to avoid obstacles, when in motion, even when 

 deprived of sight. When their eyes were 

 covered, as well as when quite destroyed, they 

 would fly about in a room, carefully avoiding 

 the sides, or any thing projecting in a narrow 

 passage. They would invariably turn where 

 the passage turned at right angles, and always 

 keep in the middle. They never failed to 

 avoid these objects, even passing carefully 

 between two of them, when placed so near 

 together, so to render it necessary to contract 

 their wings as they passed. 



The name of vampyre is given to a large 

 species of bat distinguished by its habit of 

 sucking the blood of living animals during 

 their sleep ; yet this habit is common, also, 

 to most of the bats of Java, and other hot 



