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Art. IV. — Notes on an Australian Bat, No. II. By Ludwio 

 Becker, Esq. 



[Read before the Institute, May 11, 1859.] 



[With a plate.] 



It is a well known fact that specimens of natural history, 

 when put into spirits of wine, or other fluids, for preservation, 

 become more or less altered and damaged by them, and it is 

 always with some difficulty that a good description is pro- 

 curable from objects so preserved. As a proof to what extent 

 spirits of wine may alter specimens, I place before you the 

 skull of a bat which I had put in alcohol, apparently pure 

 (mixed with a little spirits of camphor), about two years ago. 

 When taken out lately for examination, I found that all the 

 bones of it were flexible, like Indian rubber ; and now, after 

 it has dried up, they are shrunk together to a shapeless form. 

 Such accidents probably assist to account for the vague mode 

 in which so many objects of natural history are sometimes 

 described, especially if there is only one specimen at hand, 

 and it is not desirable to risk the spoiling of it, by cutting the 

 skull out of the skin, so as to show the form of the cranium 

 and the jaws with their dentition. 



The best description, I consider, is a good drawing taken 

 from life ; and the pen being here only the left-hand sister 

 of the pencil, has nothing to do but to complete what the 

 other was unable to show at all, or not perfectly enough. 



I thought it necessary to make these few remarks, because 

 I venture to describe an animal which may have been known 

 for some time already to the visitors of museums, and which 

 may be found described already in some work or other. To 

 me it is new, for I have looked through all the works at my 

 disposal, and have not found one species whose description 

 corresponds in all parts with the little creature before you. 

 At all events, my drawings and observations, carefully made 

 from life, or shortly after death, will always prove to be of 

 some value to the student of this particularly interesting- 

 group of mammals. 



On the 11th of April last, through the kindness of Dr. 

 Ferd. Mueller, I received a living Bat, caught the previous 



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