No. TIL BATS. 



IN almost every temperate part of the world, but 

 more especially abounding in tropical climates, 

 are found the curious creatures which are popularly 

 known as bats, and scientifically as cheiroptera, an 

 appropriate word signifying ' hand-winged ' animals. 

 Australia, however, must be excepted, as the whole 

 of the Australian mammalia belong to the Marsupials. 



It is only of late years that their proper position in 

 the scale of creation has been discovered. Before that 

 time, some of the wildest conjectures were made on 

 the subject. As the creatures possessed the power 

 of flight, some authors placed them among the birds, 

 entirely overlooking the differences in structure, 

 which should at once have pointed out their place 

 among the mammals. Some, considering them to be 

 quadrupeds, because they were able to walk upon 

 the ground, though after a rather clumsy fashion, 

 imagined that they must form a connecting link 

 between the mammals and the birds ; and it was not 

 until later discoverers carefully investigated their 

 anatomy that the real position of the bats was arrived 

 at, namely, just after the monkey tribe, and before 

 the cats. 



The appearance of the bat is familiar to almost all, 

 the strange membranous wings, enabling their owner 

 to pursue their aerial evolutions with an ease and 

 rapidity not exceeded by any bird, being the first 

 points which arrest the attention. 



