THE LESSER HORSE-SHOE BAT. * 5 1 



mal economy more deserving of admiration than that 

 of the ears of the different species of Bats, whose 

 haunts are liable to be infested with many kinds of 

 noxious insects, which otherwise would crawl into, 

 and injure the texture of, these delicate .organs. 



The Horse-shoe Bat was first observed on the con- 

 tinent, about the middle of the last century, by the 

 illustrious Daubenton, who has described it with 

 great accuracy. Dr. Latham, several years ago, dis- 

 covered these animals in England, in the salt-petre 

 houses belonging to the powder-mills at Dart ford; 

 and Col. Montagu informs us, that they .inhabit, in 

 considerable numbers, a large cavern called Kent's 

 Hole, near Torbay^ on the coast of Devonshire. 



THE LESSER HORSE-SHOE BAT*. 



SOME time after the Synopsis which accompanies 

 the present volume was printed, Col. Montagu very 

 obligingly favoured me with specimens of the two 

 kinds of Horse-shoe Bats, both taken by him in Kent's 

 Mole,, near Torbay. Until this most accurate and 



intelligent 



* fespcrtilio ferrum-equinum . Linnceus Le Petit fer-a-che'cal. 

 Buffbn. 



Length scarcely 2 inches : extent ofivings 9% inches. Weight from 

 63 to 80 grains. Nose surrounded on the top by a broad horse-shoe- 

 shaped membrane, differing from that of the last species principally 

 by the form of the upper, transverse, erect, and pointed part: this 

 difference will best be explained by the accompanying outlines, 

 No. I, expressing that of the last, and No. 2, that of the present 

 species. 



V No - 3 - V 



Teeth 



