ORDER III. CARNIVORA. 3? 



a diet consisting principally of insects. Their fore legs are 

 capable of pretty free and extensive motions, and are furnished 

 with nails or claws, but no thumb ; whence they are far in- 

 ferior in point of address to the apes. They are remarkable 

 for possessing the sense of smell to a high degree of perfec- 

 tion. Their organs of digestion are in general less com- 

 plicated and extensive than those of other animals. The 

 stomach is smaller, and the intestines shorter; animal food 

 requiring less change than vegetable in order to convert it 

 into chyle. 



1. The first tribe, or family, is that of the Bats. These 

 ' have some points of affinity with the Quadrumana, and were 

 arranged by Linnaeus with man and the monkeys. They are 

 sufficiently distinguished, however, by their wings. These 

 are formed of a thin fold of skin, which extends between the 

 two limbs of the same side, and is likewise stretched across 

 the claws of the fore feet, which are very long and slender, 

 and serve to keep the membrane extended like the sticks of 

 an umbrella. By means of this apparatus, many of them are 

 enabled to fly with a force and rapidity equal to that of birds ; 

 but, in others, it answers only the purpose of a parachute to 

 break their fall from lofty places, or to enable them to per- 

 form great leaps in their passage from tree to tree. They 

 are principally nocturnal animals, seeking their prey (which 

 consist of insects, small quadrupeds or birds, and flesh of any 

 kind) in the twilight, and retiring during the day to dark and 

 hidden recesses, where they remain suspended by their claws, 

 till the return of night. 



Their eyes are extremely small, and apparently of little use ; 

 but the cavities of their ears are extensive. They possess the 

 singular faculty of directing their flight with great accuracy 

 and precision, without the assistance of the sense of sight, 

 and even after their eyes have been destroyed. It has been 

 found that, after the complete removal of the eyeball, bats 

 are able to fly about in a room without touching the walls, 

 apparently with as much ease and security as before. What 

 is still more remarkable, when several willow rods are placed 

 six inches distant from ^each other, so as to form a sort of 

 grating, the bats, after the destruction of their eyes, are able 

 to pass backward and forward through the spaces without ever 

 coming in contact with the rods. It is difficult to give any 

 satisfactory account of this phenomenon, and yet the experi- 

 ments from which the knowledge of it has been derived, are 

 well authenticated, and have been frequently repeated. It 

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