CHEIROPTERA. 



CHEIROPTERA ! 



OR WING-HANDED ANIMALS. 



FROM the earliest times in which the science of zoology attracted the attention of ob- 

 servant men, the discovery of a true systematic arrangement has been one of the great 

 objects of those who studied animal life, and the forms in which it is outwardly mani- 

 fested. In the writings of these pioneers of zoological science, from Aristotle, its father, 

 even to the latest authors on this subject, we find that many animals, whether in groups 

 or in single species, have long baffled investigation. Among the more conspicuous of 

 these enigmatical beings are the strange and weird-like animals which are popularly 

 known by the terse title of Bats, and, scientifically, by the more recondite name of 

 Cheiroptera, a term derived from two Greek words signifying, the former, a hand, and 

 the latter, a wing. 



On a retrospect of the theories which have been broached on the subject of the Bats, 

 we find that the singular diversity of opinion is quite on a par with the peculiar form 

 of the animal which excited them. 



Some authors place the Bats among the birds, because they are able to fly through 

 the air, while others assign them a position among the quadrupeds, because they can 

 walk on the earth. Some, again, who admitted the mammalian nature of the creatures, 

 scattered them at intervals through the scale of animated beings, heedless of any dis- 

 tinction excepting the single characteristic on which they took their stand, and by which 

 they judged every animal. These are but a few of the diverse opinions which ran riot 

 among the naturalists of the former times, among which the most ingeniously quaint, 

 is that which places the bat and the ostrich in the same order, because the Bat can fly, 

 and the ostrich cannot. 



By degrees the true mammalian character of the Bats became more clearly under- 

 stood, and they were removed from the birds to take their rank among the higher 

 forms. Even then, however, they were placed at the very end of the mammals, being 

 considered as a connecting link which prevented a too abrupt change from the hairy to 

 the feathered beings ; and it was left to the more recent investigators to discover, by 

 careful anatomical research, the real position of the Bat tribe. 



In general form the Bats are clearly separated from any other group of animals, and 

 by most evident modifications of structure, can be recognized by the most cursory 

 glance. 



The first peculiarity in the Bat form which strikes the eye, is the wide and delicate 

 membrane which stretches round the body, and which is used in the place of the wings 

 with which birds are furnished. This membrane, thin and semi-transparent as it is, is 

 double in structure, being a prolongation of the skin of the flanks and other portions of 

 the animal, and, therefore, having its upper and under surface, in the same manner as 

 the body of the creature itself. The two surfaces are so clearly marked, that with 

 ordinary care, they can be separated from each other. Along the sides, this double 

 membrane is rather stronger and thicker, but, as it extends from the body, it assumes 

 greater tenuity, until at the margin it is so exquisitely thin, that the tiny blood- 

 corpuscles, which roll along the minute vessels that supply the wing with nourishment, 

 can be seen clearly through its integument, by the help of a good microscope. 



In order to support this beautiful membrane, to extend it to its requisite width, and 

 to strike the air with it for the purpose of flight, the bones of the fore-part of the body, 

 and especially those of the arms and hands, undergo a singular modification. 



As will be seen on reference to the accompanying engraving, which represents the 

 skeleton of the Vampire, and which has been originally taken by the photographic 



