S 6 THE MAMMALS OF THE WOODS 



above and greyish white below. It is widely distributed in North Africa, northern 

 Asia, and nearly every country in Europe, living in wooded districts, either among 

 forests or copses, being in many respects like the common shrew-mouse, though 

 not so frequently found in the open. 



Bats, forming the order of Chiroptera, are the only mammals 

 endowed with the power of true flight. Unlike nearly all other 

 mammals, the arms are much longer than the hind-limbs, and between the 

 much elongated fingers (with the exception of the thumb, which has a crooked 

 claw for climbing) a delicate bare web is spread, extending from the arm and 

 sides to the leg, which is frequently connected by another web with the tail. 

 The knee-joint, instead of turning forward as in other mammals, is directed back- 

 wards ; this being the reason why bats get along so awkwardly on level ground. 

 So specially fitted are they for movement in the air that, as a rule, they rarely 

 move about on the ground, and most of them leave it as soon as possible by climb- 

 ing up a tree, rock, or wall, with the object either of suspending themselves head- 

 downwards from some convenient position or of starting on their flight. During 

 night most bats both eat and drink, the female also carrying her young. They 

 are entirely nocturnal, or at least twilight, animals, though, unlike other nocturnal 

 creatures, they have comparatively small eyes. Fruit-eating bats are confined to 

 the warmer parts of the Old World, and vampires and their allies are exclusively 

 tropical American ; but several of the European insect-eating kinds are met with 

 over a large part of the globe. 



Bats are represented by an enormous number of species, and are grouped into 

 several families. The whole group may be divided into two suborders, namely, 

 the insect-eaters and the fruit-eaters. The suborder Microchiroptera includes the 

 blood-suckers, and a few fruit-eating species, but consists principally of those that 

 live only on insects, and is formed entirely of such species as are distinguished 

 from those of the other group by their sharply cusped teeth, so admirably adapted 

 for the mastication of insects ; and they may also be recognised at a glance by the 

 form of the ear, which is never, as in the case of the fruit-eating group, closed at 

 the base, so as to form a complete ring. To make up for the comparatively weak 

 vision of their small eyes, bats have an exceptionally acute sense of touch, which in 

 the greater number of species is probably situated in the wing-membrane and in 

 the soft ears. In others, however, there is little doubt that this sense has its seat 

 in the leaf-like expansions of membrane on the nose, which may be either small 

 and simple or large and mask-like, and always bear long fine hairs, that may 

 represent the whiskers of the cat tribe. All ordinary bats have a shrill squeak, so 

 shrill that it cannot be heard by many persons. Bats living in temperate regions 

 must either sleep in the winter or go to a warmer climate. Probably all 

 European bats hibernate, but in Canada at least two species are known which, in 

 order to avoid the cold, migrate regularly to southern districts, and there is one 

 North American species which does not appear to visit the northern parts of its 

 haunts at all until August. As some North American bats have been found to 

 migrate, we have good grounds for supposing that other bats journey to and from 

 their winter-haunts, and this at any rate holds good for those living near the north 



