VI 

 THE SEROTINE, OR CAROLINA BAT 



This little brown bat has been selected as our type of all 

 bats because it is the one only animal of the kind found 

 in both the Old World and the New. It has, indeed, a 

 very wide range, being found in America fi'om Lake 

 Winnipeg to Guatemala, while in the Old World it ex- 

 tends from England to Siberia, Java, and the Oamaroon 

 Mountains of Africa. It is common in all the Atlantic 

 States, and abounds in Albany during February and 

 March, as De Kay tells us in his " Natural History of 

 New York." No other kind of bat whatever is found on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. 



Such small animals as the bats of temperate regions, 

 so very rarely seen by day, and all apparently so much 

 alike, may seem to most persons to be objects of little 

 interest. 



Nevertheless, bats are exceedingly interesting animals, 

 as we think the reader will find to be the case. But 

 M'hat is a bat ? 



No one who has ever taken a bat in his hand and has 

 noticed its fur, its ears, and its teeth can doubt but that 

 it is a little beast. That the ancient Germans as well as 

 our English-speaking ancestors saw^ the truth so far, is 

 evident from the names they respectively bestowed on it 

 — from the German name, Jlede7inm(S, and the old English 

 tei'm, Hittermoiise. 



