MAMMALIA—BAT. 91 
“A little before day-break, when my early hours gave me frequent oppor- 
tun ties of observing him, he seemed to solicit my attention; and if I 
presented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it with great gentleness, 
but eagerly took fruit when I offered it, though he seldom ate much at his 
morning repast: when the day brought back his night, his eyes lost their 
lustre and strength, and he composed himself for a slumber of ten or eleven 
aours. 
“My little friend was, on the whole, very engaging; and when he was 
found lifeless, in the same posture in which he would naturally have slept, 
I consoled myself with believing that he died without much pain, and lived 
with as much pleasure as he could have enjoyed in a state of captivity.” 

ORDER THIRD—CHEIROPTERA. 
° 
THESE animals are in their general form disposed for flight. Their inci- 
sors are variable in number; canines more or less strong; molars some- 
times covered with points, sometimes furrowed longitudinally ; a fold of 
skin between the four members and the fingers of the anterior feet; two 
pectoral mamme; very strong clavicles; scapule large: fore arms not 
capable of rotation. 
THE, BAT. 
Aw animal, which, like the bat, is balf quadruped and half bird, and which, © 
in fact, is neither the one nor the other, is a kind of monster. In the bat, 
the fore feet are, properly speaking, neither wings nor feet, though the 
animal uses them for the purpose of flying, and occasionally of moving 
along upon the ground. They are, in fact, two shapeless extremities, of 
which the bones are of a monstrous length, and connected by a membrane, 
not covered with feathers, or even with hair, like the rest of the body: they 
are a kind of winged paws, or hands, ten times larger than the feet, and in 
all, four times longer than the whole length of the body of the animal: they 
are, in a word, parts which have rather the appearance of a capricious and 
accidental, than a regular and determined production. 
To these incongruities, these disproportions of tne body and members, 
may be added the still more striking deformities of the head. In some 
species, the nose is hardly visible, the eyes are sunk near the tip of the ear, 
and are confounded with the cheeks; in others, the ears are as long as the 
body, or else the face is twisted into the form of a horse-shoe, and the nose 
covered with a kind of crust. Averse, likewise, to the society of all other 
creatures, they shun the light, inhabit none but dark and gloomy places, to 
which, after their nocturnal excursions, they are sure to return by break of 
day, and in which they remain, fixed, as it were, to the walls, till night 
again approaches 
