THE LONG-EARED BAT. §6 



Jlvonderful quadruped, I saw it several times, con- 

 fute the vulgar opinion that Bats, when down on 

 aflat surface cannot get on the wing again, by ris- 

 ing with great ease from the floor. It ran, I ob- 

 served, with more dispatch than I was aware of, bi;t 

 in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner *. 



From experiments made by Spallanzani, on the 

 Long-eared, the Horse-shoe, and the Noctule Bats, 

 it appears that these animals possess some additional 

 sense, wliich enables thein, when deprived of sight, 

 to avoid obstacles as readily as when they retained 

 the power of vision. When their eyes were cover- 

 ed, or even put entirely out, they would fly about 

 in a darkened chamber without ever hittino: asrainst 

 the walls, and always suspend their flight with cau- 

 tion when they came to a place where they could 

 perch. In the middle of a dark sewer, that turned 

 at right angles, they would always, though at a con- 

 siderable distance from the walls, regularly bend their 

 flight with the greatest nicety. When branches of 

 trees v/cre su-pended in a room, they always avoided 

 them ; and flew betwixt threads hung perpendicu- 

 larly from the ceiling, though these were so near each 

 other, that they had to contract their wings in pas- 

 sing through them -\-. Mr. Jurln supposes that the 

 sense which enables them to perform these unac- 

 countable operations is lodged in the expanded 



* Natural History of Selborne. 

 t. These remarks appeared in a small woik, entitietl " An Account 

 of Some species of Bats which, wlien deprived ofsi:;ht, perforin their 

 movements in the air as if they saw 5 a faculty net possessed b,' olhiv 

 birds, under the iarne circunutanves." 



