MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS. 32J> 



at all carried on, it is also so very slow, as to be 

 scarcely disrernable. The natural temperature, 

 or animal heat, sinks greatly helow the usual 

 standard, and digestion becomes altogether sus- 

 pended. All the visible exertions are at a stand, 

 and none of the functions seem to go on, ex- 

 cepting a very small degree of nutrition, and an 

 interchange of old for new mtter. in the depo- 

 sitory cells of the body." 



The female has two young ones at a birth, large 

 in proportion to the size of the mother, and which 

 hang close to the nipples, even when the animal 

 is flying, so that the Bat hardly seems to stand 

 in need of a nest, to which most other animals 

 resort for the protection of their young ; and it 

 has the additional peculiarity of not only finding 

 its way in the darkest night, but also in a laby- 

 rinth, or in any crooked or contracted place, 

 even when deprived of its eyes : a circumstance 

 which has been attributed to the extreme sensi- 

 bility of its membranous wings, or to a more 

 acute hearing, that renders it susceptible of 

 the diversity of impulsions communicated by the 

 extern 1 .ir. 



Naturalists have been divided on the nomen- 

 clature of the large Bats of foreign countries, 

 more particularly as referable to the term Vam- 

 pyre, which, by sone, has been applied equally 

 to the Asiatic and American Bats, and by others, 

 has been confined to the former, while the latter 



