372 HISTORY or 



The varieties of this animal, especially in our country, are but 

 few ; and the differences scarcely worth enumeration. Naturalists 

 mention tlie Long-eared Bat, much less than that generally seen, 

 and with much longer ears ; the Horse-shoe Bat, with an odd 

 protuberance round its upper lip, somewhat in the form of a 

 horse-shoe ; the Rhinoceros Bat, with a horn growing from the 

 nose, somewhat similar to that animal from whence it has the 

 name. These, with several others, whose varieties are too 

 numerous, and differences too minute for a detail, are all inoffen- 

 sive, minute, and contemptible ; incapable, from their size, of 

 Injuring mankind, and not sufficiently numerous much to incom- 

 mode him. But there is a larger race of bats, found in the East 

 and West Indies, that are truly formidable ; each of these is 

 singly a dangerous enemy, but when they unite in flocks, they 

 then become dreadful. Were the inhabitants of the Afric;ui 

 coasts,' says Des Marchais, to eat animals of the bat kind, as 

 they do in the East Indies, they would never want a sujiply of 

 provisions. They are there in such numbers, that, when they 

 fly, they obscure the setting sun. In the moniing, at peep of 

 day, they are seen sticking upon the tops of the trees, and cling- 

 ing to each other, like bees when they swarm, or like large 

 clusters of cocoa. The Europeans often amuse themselves 

 with shooting among this huge mass of living creatures, and ob- 

 serving their embarrassment when wounded. They sometimea 

 enter the houses, and the negroes are expert at killing them ; 

 but although these people seem for ever hungry, yet they regard 

 the bat with horror, and will not eat it, though ready to starve. 



Of foreign bats, the largest we have any certain accounts of, 

 is the Rousette, or the Great Bat of Madagascar. This for- 

 midable creature is near four feet broad, when the wings are ex- 

 tended ; and a foot long, from the tip of the nose to the inser- 

 tion of the tail It resembles our bat in the form of its wings, 

 in its manner of flying, and in its internal conformation. It 

 differs from it in its enormous size ; in its colour, which is red, 

 like that of a fox ; in its head and nose also, which resemble 

 those of that animal, and which have induced some to call it the 

 flying fox ; it differs also in the number of its teeth ; and in 

 having a claw on the fore foot, which is wanting in ours. This 

 formidable creature is found only in the ancient continent ; pai- 

 1 Des Marchais, vol. ii, p. 208. 



