384 



ANIMALS OF 



forward on the breast, as in the human kind. 

 This was a sufficient motive for Linnaeus to 

 give it the title of aprimas, to rank it in the 

 same order with mankind ; and to push this 

 contemptible animal among the chiefs of the 

 creation. Such arbitrary associations produce 

 rather ridicule than instruction, and render 

 even method contemptible ; however, we are 

 to forgive too strong an attachment to sys- 

 tem in this able naturalist, since his applica- 

 tion to the particular history of the animal 

 counterbalances the defect.* 



From Linnaeus we learn, that the female 

 makes no nest for her young, as most birds 

 and quadrupeds are known to do. She is 

 barely content with the first hole she meets, 

 where sticking herself by her hooks against 

 the sides of her apartments she permits her 

 young to hang at the nipple, and in this man- 

 ner to continue for the first or second day. 

 When, after some time, the dam begins to 

 grow hungry, and find a necessity of stirring 

 abroad, she takes her little ones and sticks 

 them to the wall, in the manner she before 

 hung herself; there they immoveably cling, 

 and patiently wait till her return. 



Thus far this animal seems closely allied 

 to the quadruped race. Its similitude to 

 that of birds is less striking. As nature has 

 furnished birds with extremely strong pecto- 

 ral muscles, to move the wings, and direct 

 their flight, so has it also furnished this ani- 

 mal. As birds also have their legs weak, and 

 unfit for the purposes of motion, the bat has 

 its legs fashioned in the same manner, and is 

 never seen to walk, or, more properly speak- 

 ing, to push itself forward with its hind legs, 

 but in cases of extreme necessity. The toes 

 of the fore legs, or, if we may use the expres- 

 sion, its extremely long fingers, extend the 

 web like a membrane that lies between them; 

 and this, which is extremely thin, serves to 

 lift the little body into the air: in this man- 

 ner, by an unceasing percussion, much swifter 

 than that of birds, the animal continues, and 

 directs its flight; however, the great labour 

 required in flying, soon fatigues it; for, un- 

 like birds, which continue for days together 

 upon the wing, the bat is tired in less than an 

 hour, and then returns to its hole, satisfied 



* Fauna Suecia, p. 8. 



with its supply, to enjoy the darkness of its 

 retreat. 



If we consider the bat as it is seen in our 

 own country, we shall find it a harmless, in- 

 offensive creature. It is true that it now and 

 then steals into a larder, and, like a mouse, 

 commits its petty thefts upon the fattest parts 

 of the bacon. But this happens seldom ; the 

 general tenor of its industry is employed in 

 pursuing insects that are much more noxious 

 to us than itself can possibly be; while its 

 evening flight, and its unsteady wabbling mo- 

 tion, amuse the imagination, and add one 

 figure more to the pleasing group of Anima- 

 ted Nature. 



The varieties of this animal, especially in 

 our country, are but few; and the differences 

 scarce worth enumeration. Naturalists men- 

 tion the Long-eared Bat, much less than that 

 generally seen, and with much longer ears; 

 the Horse-shoe Bat, with an odd protuberance 

 round its upper lip, somewhat in the form of 

 a horse-shoe; the Rhinoceros Bat, with a 

 horn growing from the nose, somewhat simi- 

 lar to that animal from whence it has the 

 name. These, with several others, whose 

 varieties are too numerous, and differences 

 too minute for a detail, are all inoffensive, 

 minute, and contemptible; incapable, from 

 their size, of injuring mankind, and not suf- 

 ficiently numerous much to incommode him. 

 But there is a larger race of bats, found in 

 the East and West Indies, that are truly for- 

 midable ; each of these is singly a dangerous 

 enemy, but when they unite in flocks, they 

 then become dreadful. Were the inhabitants 

 of the African coasts, b says Des Marchais, to 

 eat animals of the Bat kind, as they do in the 

 East Indies, they would never want a sup- 

 ply of provisions. They are there in such 

 numbers, that when they fly, they obscure the 

 setting sun. In the morning, at peep of day, 

 they are seen sticking upon the tops of the 

 trees, and clinging to each other, like bees 

 when they swarm, or like large clusters of 

 cocoa. The Europeans often amuse them- 

 selves with shooting among this huge msiss 

 of living creatures, and observing their em- 

 barrassment when wounded. They some- 

 times enter the houses, and the Negroes are 



b Des Marchais, vol. ii. p. 208. 



