526 MAMMALIA. 



avoid the intense heat of the climate. There they remain all day, 

 without being disturbed by the noise and activity of trafEc. 



To many persons Bats are objects of dread. Their ambiguous 

 nature, their mysterious movements, and their nocturnal habits, 

 cause this repulsive feeling. They are associated with Owls and 

 other unsociable creatures, and are supposed to share in the same 

 malevolent properties. In the time of Moses, they were consigned 

 to public opprobrium ; for the Hebrew legislator classed them with 

 the unclean animals whose flesh the people of Grod were forbidden 

 to eat. In the middle ages, Bats were supposed to personify the 

 Evil One, and were the inseparable companions of witches and 

 sorcerers. At present, these ridiculous ideas are no longer in 

 vogue ; but Bats continue to be disliked, and the peasant who 

 kills one glories so much in the deed that he nails it up on the 

 door of his cottage. These animals, however, do not deserve such 

 treatment ; indeed, our hatred of them is base ingratitude, for it 

 renders us every service. Like the Swallows, which it succeeds in 

 the regions of the air at evening, the Bats prevent the multiplica- 

 tion of insects noxious to agriculture and an annoyance to the 

 human family. In this respect they have a claim on our friend- 

 ship. When- will Man, then, cease to persecute them? Such 

 would be an act of justice, as well as good policy. 



Bats are found in every region of the globe. Certain species 

 are confined to particular regions ; others are absolutely cosmo- 

 politan. Conformably to what is observed in all other animals, 

 and even in vegetables, it is the warmest countries which fur- 

 nish the largest and strongest species. 



The order of Cheiroptera may be divided into three families: 

 the Vesjaertilionidse, Roussettes, and Vampires. 



Family of Vespeutilionid.^. — The Cheiroptera belonging to 

 this family are subdivided into three groups, according to a dis- 

 tinction based on the conformation of the nose. In the first 

 group are the species with the simple nose, and comprising the 

 Taphozons, Noctilios, Vespertilios, and Molossus ; in the second 

 are the species which have the nose pierced by a cavity, — they 

 include the single genus Nycteris ; the third comprises the 

 species whose nose is surmounted by a cuticle resembling a leaf, 

 — they form the genera Rhinolophus and Magadermes. 



