we are related on the other side of the circle." 

 Cuvier associates them directly with the Galeopi- 

 theci, and, secondarily, with the Hedgehogs, Shrews, 

 Tigers, and Hyaenas* These circumstances are 

 mentioned here, that the reader may assign them a 

 place according to his own pleasure. He may, 

 however, for the present, without any compromise 

 of principle, allow the writer to consider them, with 

 Illiger, as a distinct order. 



The CHEIROPTERA, or Mammalia of which the 

 anterior extremities are so modified as to perform 

 the office of wings (their name being derived from 

 X^?, the hand, and KTS%W, a wing), are especially 

 and more obviously characterised by having a la- 

 teral replication of the skin, extending from the neck 

 to the tail, and including the fore and hind feet, of 

 the former of which the first toe alone is left free, 

 while the other toes, extremely elongated, constitute 

 a kind of frame on which the membrane is stretched 

 out. The apparatus thus formed serves to support 

 them in the air, and even to enable them to perform 

 a fluttering kind of flight, which, although much 

 inferior in power and velocity to that of birds, is suffi- 

 cient for the pursuit of the nocturnal Lepidopterous 

 and Dipterous insects on which they prey, or for their 

 passage from one tree or wood to another in quest of 

 vegetable aliment. In conformity with this arrange- 

 ment, they are furnished with strong clavicles and 

 broad scapulae, in order to give their shoulders the 

 requisite firmness, while their fore-arm or cubitus is 

 destitute of the rotatory motion so conspicuous 



