176 BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



them from the trees or walls on which they rest, with 

 the head downwards. 



The flying membrane is also frequently used as a 

 cloak or mantle, in which these little creatures do not 

 only shroud themselves, but the females hold and shel- 

 ter their young. It also answers other interesting pur- 

 poses, and among them one which deserves particular 

 attention. It was found by Spallanzani, by a course of 

 cruel experiments which cannot be mentioned without 

 censure, that bats, when deprived of sight, and so far as 

 possible of hearing and smelling, still flew about safely 

 and certainly, avoiding every obstacle, passing through 

 passages only just large enough to admit them, and 

 moving about places formerly unknown j and that when 

 he stretched threads in various directions across the 

 apartment, there was also the same result. Cuvier con- 

 sidered these experiments, therefore, as affording a proof 

 that the sense of touch was diffused over the whole sur- 

 face of the flying membrane. 



This provision for the comfort of the bat has many 

 analogies in the circumstances of other animals. Those 

 which move about much in the dark, have commonly 

 hairs or whiskers projecting from the upper lip, which 

 guide them in their passage through narrow places and 

 holes. They serve as feelers, and are exactly of such a 



