THE CAROLINA BAT 157 



Bats form an order of beasts primarily divided into 

 two groups, or sections, very unequal in size. One of 

 these comprises bats found in all parts of the world, 

 including Europe, Northern Asia, and America. 



The other group contains only the flying foxes and 

 their allies, of which not more than about eighty species 

 are yet known, none of which are found in America or 

 Northern Asia and Europe. 



No bats of any kind are found where neither insects 

 nor fruit can be obtained. 



Thus there are none in Iceland nor in Kerguelen's 

 Land. They are found in most oceanic islands, even the 

 small Savage Island, south-east of the Navigator's group, 

 being inhabited by one kind of flying fox. 



None appear, however, to inhabit the islands of the 

 Low Archipelago or in the Galapagos group, nor have 

 any been found in St. Helena. 



The great primary division to which the Carolina bat 

 and all American and European bats belong is made up of 

 five subordinate groups, or families, as follows : ( i ) The 

 common bats, (2) the leaf -nosed bats, (3) the Old World 

 blood-sucking family, (4) the oblique-snouted family, 

 and (5) the New World blood-sucking family.* 



We will notice first the family of common bats, whereof 

 more than twelve dozen different species have been already 

 described. Though only one of these species, the Caro- 

 lina bat, is common to both the Old World and the 

 New, yet the family, as a whole, is common to both, 

 while it ranges from 32 North latitude down to Terra 

 del Fuego. About a dozen species of the family are 

 found in England. The commonest of these is the pipis- 



* These five families are known in science respectively by the 

 names : (i) Vespertilionidas, (2) Rhinolophidas, (3) Nycteridae, 

 (4) Emballonuridie, and (5) Phyllostomidge. 



