ORDER CARNASSIER. 139 



augmented the number of the bats, and proved them to be 

 susceptible of many more differences in that very relation 

 in which Brisson considered them, he found himself em- 

 barrased by these rich materials. Erxleben, without hesi- 

 tation, had entirely adopted the principles of the French 

 naturalist, and had made as many generic divisions as the 

 discoveries of science had presented him with new types. 

 But this was an innovation which he did not dare to adopt, 

 and, consequently, he destroyed the true character of the ge- 

 nus vespertilio, at least, as far as its first definition extended, 

 by placing in it all the bats which had, more or less, than 

 four incisors ; in fine, all those to which the characters of 

 the genus pteropus were not found to agree. 



Linnaeus, who was acquainted, at first, with a very small 

 number of bats, united them in a single group, under the 

 name vespertilio. It was only in the last edition of his 

 Systema Naturce, that he deviated from this arrangement, 

 by separating from the bats, the leporinus, or hare-lipped 

 bat, to bring it (for no very sufficient reason, apparently,) 

 into the order of glires, under the name of noctilio. This 

 great man, too much occupied in establishing the broader 

 bases of his zoological classifications, often neglected the 

 subdivisions, of which they were susceptible. The bats 

 present a remarkable example of this. It might really be 

 almost imagined that he knew nothing about them ; for, in 

 the first instance, he attributed six incisors to these ani- 

 mals ; a description which is applicable to none : and when, 

 in his later editions, he corrected this character, it was only 

 to extend to all of them the characters of a few species, 

 namely, those of the pteropus of Brisson. Later systematic 

 naturalists, struck with these inconsistencies and the em- 

 barrassing consequences to which they led, recurred to the 

 notion of a single genus. They established, however, some 

 subdivisions founded on the number of the incisive teeth. 

 But this was done less with the view of grouping the bats 



