MAMMALIA INSECTIVORA DIAGRAM 3. 33 



Bats are nocturnal animals ; they only 

 go to seek their food in the evening, and 

 sleep during the day. They hide in the 

 darkest places, caves, hollow trees, and 

 abandoned cellars ; and it is probably be- 

 cause they have often been met with in- 

 habiting tombs that these little animals 

 have been considered ill-omened, and ob- 

 jects of fear. Nothing is more absurd. It 

 Skull of bat. is enough to take a bat and look at it a 



little while, to see that it is truly a very singular animal, but 

 that it has nothing terrible about it except its small teeth, with 

 which it bites those who tease it. We then see that the wing is 

 raised by an arm, all the parts of which are visible ; the arm 

 and fore arm, at the end of which is an extremely large hand, 

 between the fingers of which the wing is expanded. The thumb 

 is free, and forms a kind of hook. The hind legs have also hook- 

 like fingers, and the animal uses them to suspend itself. It 

 clings with its sharp claws to the roof of the places which it in- 

 habits, and if we go there in the day-time without making a 

 noise, we shall see the bats sleeping thus with their heads 

 downwards, hanging on all sides. 



Bats have a great appetite, and when we see them flying in 

 the twilight, they are in search of food. They only eat insects, 

 which are injurious animals. Bats are therefore destroyers of 

 our enemies, and far from driving them away and killing them, 

 we ought, on the contrary, to be exceedingly glad to see them, 

 because they are the farmer's friends, and not, as is believed 

 erroneously, animals of ill- omen. It is therefore very wrong to 

 kill them, and nail them to the doors of houses, where these poor 

 animals are good for nothing, whereas they were useful when 

 living. 



We sometimes hear of a terrible bat called a vampire, which is 

 said to suck the blood of men. It is true that there is in the 

 warm countries of South America a email bat which sometimes 



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