74 VESPERTILIONID^. 



between the lips, the Bat would then settle on its 

 young patron's cheek, and take the fly with great gentle- 

 ness from the mouth : and so far was this familiarity 

 carried, that when either of the young people made a 

 humming noise with the mouth, in imitation of an insect, 

 the Bat would search about the lips for the promised 

 dainty. 



The ears are developed to such an extraordinary degree 

 as at once to strike the most incurious observer, and yet 

 probably their actual comparative magnitude is not fully 

 recognized. Let us imagine a horse or a dog having ears 

 as large as its own body, and grotesque and whimsical as 

 the idea may seem, it is completely realized by the sin- 

 gular little animal of which we are now speaking. Yet 

 we are not impressed with the least idea of awkwardness 

 when inspecting it : on the contrary, its ears appear to be 

 so completely under management, and are thrown, at the 

 will of the animal, into such elegant curves and folds, 

 and are themselves so exquisitely silky and transparent, 

 as to render the species one of the most interesting of 

 our native Bats. The use of these extraordinary and 

 highly developed organs has not hitherto, we believe, 

 been fairly recognized, but we may rest assured that 

 Nature, ever prodigal in means, but not wasteful, has 

 ordained them for the performance of some important 

 office in the economy of the species. As we have in a 

 former part of this work mentioned, M. de Jurine 

 made some interesting but cruel experiments on the 

 flight of Bats when deprived of sight; and we may now 

 mention that the present species was one of those which 

 supplied the materials for these experiments. When 

 deprived of its eyes, this Bat continued to pass through 

 narrow openings with great ease and address, but when 

 the organs of hearing were also completely closed, the 



