ORDER CARNASSIER. 147 



entered the hollow with inconceivable rapidity, and without 

 justling, though the entrance was very narrow. This spe- 

 cies is also found in old buildings, beneath the roof of 

 churches, #c. The individuals just mentioned, having been 

 placed in a large box with some minced-meat, paid no at- 

 tention to it; all their anxiety appeared to be to hook 

 themselves, and. hang head downwards, as speedily as pos- 

 sible ; oftentimes they fastened, in this way, on one another, 

 and would then utter a sharp and hurried cry, through 

 vexation. Finally, at the end of a few days, they died of 

 inanition. 



M. F. Cuvier, to whom natural history is so highly in" 

 debted, has favoured us with some details relative to the 

 Barbastelle, (Vespertilio Barbastellus,) with which we shall 

 take the liberty to enrich our pages, but in as compendious 

 a form as possible. 



The indvidual, which this naturalist examined, was taken 

 in the steeple of a church ; being shut up in a glass case or 

 press, furnished with several shelves, it traversed its whole 

 extent, getting through the smallest passages, and finished 

 by retiring into its most obsure corner. In standing, it 

 placed on the ground the entire sole of its feet, and its 

 wrist as well as its thumb ; the other fingers, with the 

 membrane which unites them, were raised in a contrary 

 direction to the fore-arm, and preserved, by this position, 

 from friction against the ground. The tail was bent back 

 underneath, and the membrane, which enveloped it, folded 

 in such a manner as to fill the least possible space. In 

 walking, the limbs were raised alternately as with other 

 quadrupeds; the fore-arm was carried obliquely for ward, 

 and followed by the hind-foot of the opposite side. The 

 fingers generally remained united, as in standing; but 

 sometimes they were triflingly separated, as if for the pur- 

 pose of maintaining the equilibrium of the animal. Some- 

 times, too, the nail of the thumb was crooked, apparently 



L 2 



