CHEIROPTERA ; 
OR, WING-HANDED ANIMALS. 
From the earliest times in which the science of zoology attracted the attention of 
observant men, the discovery of a true systematic arrangement has been one of the great 
objects of those who studied animal life, and the forms in which it is outwardly manifested. 
In the writings of these pioneers of zoological science, from Aristotle, its father, even to 
the latest authors on this subject, we find that many animals, whether in groups or 
in single species, have long bafiled investigation. Among the more conspicuous of 
these enigmé itical beings are the strange and weird-like animals which are popularly 
known by the terse title of Bats, and, scientifically, by the more recondite name of 
Cheiroptera, a term derived trom two Greek words signifying, the former, a hand, and the 
latter, a wing. 
On a retrospect of the theories which have been broached on the subject of the Bats, we 
find that the singular diversity of opinion is quite on a par with the peculiar form of the 
animal which excited them. 
Some authors place the Bats among the birds, because they are able to fly through the 
air, while others assign them a position among the quadrupeds, because they can walk on 
the earth. Some, again, who admitted the mammelian nature of the creatures, scattered 
them at intervals “through the scale of animated beings, heedless of any distinction 
excepting the single characteristic on which they took their stand, and by which they 
judged every animal. These are but a few of the diverse opinions which ran riot among 
the naturalists of the former times, among which the most ingeniously quaint, is that 
which places the bat and the ostrich in the : same order, because the Bat can fly, and the 
ostrich cannot. 
By degrees the true mammalian character of the Bats became more clearly understood, 
and they were removed from the birds to take their rank among the higher forms. Even 
then, however, they were placed at the very end of the mammals, being considered as a 
connecting link which prevented a too abrupt change from the hairy to the feathered 
beings ; and it was left to the more recent investigators to discover, by careful anatomical 
research, the real position of the Bat tribe. ; 
In general form the Bats are clearly separated from any other group of animals, and 
by most evident modifications of structure, can be recognised by the most cursory glance. 
The first peculiarity in the Bat form which strikes the eye, is the wide and delicate 
membrane which stretches round the body, and which is used in the place of the wings 
with which birds are furnished. This membrane, thin and semi-transparent as it is, is 
double in structure, being a prolongation of the skin of the flanks and other portions of 
the animal, and, therefore, having its upper and under surface, in the same manner as the 
body of the creature itself. The two surfaces are so clearly marked, that with ordinary care, 
they can be separated from each other. Along the sides, this double membrane is rather 
stronger and thicker, but, as it extends from the body, it assumes greater tenuity, until at 
the margin it is so exquisitely thin, that the tiny blood-corpuscules, which roll along the 
minute vessels that supply the wing with nourishment, can be seen clearly through its 
integument, by the help of a good microscope. 
In order to support this beautiful membrane, to extend it to its requisite width, and 
to strike the air with it for the purposes of flight, the bones of the fore-part of the body, 
and especially those of the arms and hands, undergo a singular modification. 
As will be seen on reference to the accompanying engraving, which represents the 
skeleton of the Vampire, and which has been originally taken by the photographic 
