Bats. 117 



thus twisted to the outer side of the foot, which has 

 five equal claw-bearing toes. Many bats have enor- 

 mous ears, others, like the vampires of South America, 

 have sensitive leaf-like organs on their noses, made 

 up of complicated folds of skin overlying processes 

 of gristle. The body is covered with soft hairs whose 

 surface presents a peculiar and characteristic scaly 

 appearance under the microscope, and the fronts of 

 the wings are extremely sensitive. They rest by 

 hooking on to branches or ledges by the curved claws 

 of their hind toes, and many of them thus feed with 

 their heads downwards. They are extremely awkward 

 in progression on the ground, and rarely resort to this 

 method of locomotion. Most of the bats of temperate 

 climates hybernate, and these are almost all insecti- 

 vorous, having sharp-pointed teeth like those of the 

 Insectivora. In warmer regions of the New World 

 there are numerous large species, such as the vam- 

 pires, which are suctorial in habit, sucking the blood 

 of large animals, for which purpose they have sharp 

 lancet-like teeth, and a long suctorial stomach. In 

 the tropics of the Old World there are the largest 

 individuals of the order, the fruit bats or Pteropi, 

 which inhabit the Asiatic and insular shores of the 

 Indian Ocean. They have blunt teeth, moderate ears, 

 and, in one species, the distance from tip to tip of 

 the wings is often as much as five feet. They are 

 sometimes called flying foxes, from their prevailing 

 colour and the shape of their heads. 



