44 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



menageries, where^, indeed, from the impossibility of ex- 

 ercise, and of taking their natural food, they seldom live 

 for any length of time. Our notices on this singular 

 race of animals will, therefore, be brief, and confined to 

 two species. 



The m.anners of the Barbastel have been well illus- 

 trated by M. Fred. Cuvier, who seems to have kept one 

 alive for a short time. Upon first being taken, it was 

 shut up in a glazed press, furnished with several shelves, 

 all of which it traversed, passing through the smallest 

 passages, and at length retired into the most obscure 

 corner. When the animal stood, the entire sole of its 

 foot, its wrist, and its thumb, were placed upon the 

 ground ; the other fingers were raised in a contrary di- 

 rection to the fore leg ; a position by which they were 

 prevented from rubbing against the ground : the tail 

 was bent underneath, and the membrane which enve- 

 loped it was folded so as only to occupy the least pos- 

 sible space. In walking, the limbs moved alternately, 

 as in other quadrupeds, but the fingers generally remained 

 united as when the animal stood. Like other bats, it 

 slept suspended, with the head downwards. To accom- 

 plish this, after finding a suitable place, it would fix its 

 thumbs where the nails of its hinder feet should be 

 hooked, and for this purpose the slightest inequality was 

 sufficient ; it would then detach one of its thumbs, and 

 turning its body, would bring the hind foot of the same 

 side to the spot which the thumb had just occupied : 

 the nails being properly fixed, it would let go its other 

 thumb ; and this movement, by leaving the body to its 

 natural weight, carried the head downwards, and 

 brought the second foot close to the first, where it be- 

 came hooked in the same manner. When desirous of 

 flying, if it was resting upon a horizontal surface, it 

 would make a perpendicular spring, and suddenly ex- 

 tend its wings ; but if it was suspended, it would quit 

 its hold, and unfurl its wings while in the act of falhng. 

 This little prisoner thus continued to afford matter of 

 speculation to its learned master for eight days, without 



