THE HORSE-SHOE BAT*. 



WHEN these animals sleep, they suspend them- 

 selves by their hind feet, and fold their wing mem- 

 branes across their breast and abdomen. They feed 

 on various kinds of insects, which, like other Bats, 

 they catch during flight, in the evenings of the 

 warmer seasons of the year. Their teeth, in propor- 

 tion to the size of their body, are sometimes very 

 large: the fangs of a specimen now in my possession 

 measure each more than a line and half in length. But 

 the utility of this formation is immediately account- 

 ed for, by the knowledge that they pursue chafers, 

 and other coleopterous insects, with great avidity, 

 and that they carefully shear off, with their teeth, 

 the elytra, thorax, and legs, and eat only the body. 



On examining the ears of this and the ensuing 

 species, we are struck with a peculiarity not ob- 

 servable in the other kinds of English Bats. Neither 

 of them possess any secondary or inner valves : yet, 

 by a dilitation of the base of the ear in front, which 

 has a notch in the edge on each side, and a fold 

 across it, the opening of the ear is not only capable 

 of being perfectly closed during sleep, but the 

 dilated part of its membrane has, in such circum- 

 stances, even much the appearance of a secondary 

 valve. There is scarcely any contrivance in the ani- 



* Vespertilio Jerrum-equinum. Linnceus. La chauve-souris a 

 fcr-A-chcval.Buffbn. 



For the description of this Bat, see the Synopsis, p. 8, No. 5. 



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