OF BATS IN GENERAL. 33 



deprived of its skin the latter are peculiarly observ- 

 able; and are the more striking, from the abdomi- 

 nal parts being singularly weak and slender. 



Bats conceal themselves, during the day time, in 

 holes of caverns or old buildings, from whence, as 

 soon as the evening approaches, they issue in 

 search of prey. The English species feed on in- 

 sects, and particularly on gnats, ephemera, and va- 

 rious kinds of moths, which, during the evening 

 and night of the summer months, are found in 

 abundance in the air. To enable the animals to 

 catch their prey with greater facility, their mouths 

 are so wide as to extend almost from ear to ear. 

 Like Swallows, they drink whilst on wing, by sipping 

 the surface as they play over the pools and streams. 



The females produce their offspring about mid- 

 summer. These, which are usually two in num- 

 ber, are at first perfectly naked. By the old 

 writers they were thought to have some resem- 

 blance in shape to human infants. They are suckled 

 by teats situated on the breast of the dam; and 

 from the moment they come into the world, they 

 cling to her body with such singular tenacity, that 

 they are not to be shaken off, even by her flights 

 in search of food. 



As soon as the cold evenings of the autumn 

 commence, most of the species retire to their 

 deepest recesses, and are no longer to be seen 

 abroad. Here they remain during the winter, 

 often collected in great numbers, to defend them- 



D selves 



