STRANGE ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS. 355 



BATS AND THEIR HABITS. 



1. Excepting the colder regions, all parts of the world 

 are inhabited by bats. There are many kinds, and they 

 often occur in very large numbers. Probably there are 

 very few persons, young or old, who have not seen a bat. 

 Yet, aside from professed naturalists, it is equally probable 

 that there are still fewer who, from direct observation, 

 could give any accurate description of their ajrpearance or 

 their habits, their structure, or their relations with the 

 "birds of the air," or the " beasts of the earth," to both of 

 which bats bear more or less resemblance. 



2. Nor is this strange ; for bats pass the day in caves 

 and deserted buildings, and fly about in pursuit of prey 

 only in the twilight. Much less rapid than that of birds, 

 their flight is so irregular as to render it difficult to follow 

 their course, and in the dusk they are often mistaken for 

 somewhat eccentric members of the swallow family. 



3. Their very aspect is repulsive ; they often emit an 

 unpleasant odor. When taken, they bite so fiercely that 

 we may be thankful that they are no larger, and that, as 

 a rule, they prefer insects to human beings as food. No 

 tiger could be more violent in its demonstrations or more 

 capable of using its only weapons, the sharp, almost needle- 

 like eye-teeth. 



4. We may as well state at once that a bat is really a 

 mammal j that is, it agrees with moles, rats, sheep, horses, 

 cats, monkeys, and men, in bringing forth its young alive, 

 and nursing them by milk ; in having red blood-corpus- 

 cles, which contain no nucleus ; in being clothed with hair ; 

 and in possessing a corpus callosum — that is, a band of fibers 

 connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. There are other 

 anatomical features which link the bats closely with the 

 moles and shrews and hedgehogs. Indeed, the bat might 



