V E S 



V E S 



bones of the hind legs very flender. A native of North 

 America, and alfo found in New Zealand. 



«»*«»**•* dumber and Order of Fore-teeth unknoiun 

 to Gme/i/i. 



Lasiopterus. Tailed bat, with the membrane con- 

 ncfting the feet very broad, and covered on the upper part 

 with hair. The forehead of this fpecies, which is one of 

 the largeft, is very prominent and rounded ; nofe ihort ; 

 general colour ferruginous ; the upper part of the wings of 

 a paler call ; the ends and lower parts black. 



Lasiurus. Tailed bat, with tumid lips, and broad 

 hairy tail. A fmall fpecies, of unknown native country, 

 with upright fmall ears ; tail broad at the bafe, terminat- 

 ing in a point thickly covered with hair ; colour reddifh- 

 brown. 



Dr. Shaw adds the following fpecies, -viz, 



AuRlPEXDLLUs. Tailed bat, with obtufe nofe, and 

 large pendent ears, with pointed tips. This is the flouch- 

 eared bat of Pennant ; tail long, included in a membrane, 

 and terminate<! with a hook ; colour above deep chefnut, 

 lighter on the belly, cinereous on the fides ; length three 

 inches and four lines ; extent of wing fifteen inches. Na- 

 tive of Guiana. 



Nasutus. Taillefs ferruginous bat, with long nofe, 

 (loping at the tip ; and long upright rounded ears. This 

 is the great ferotine of Pennant ; colour of the upper 

 parts a reddlQi-chefnut ; fides of a clear yellow ; remain- 

 der of a dirty white : length five inches eight lines ; extent 

 of wings two feet. A native of Guiana, adembling in great 

 numbers in meadows and other open places ; flying in com- 

 pany with goat-fuckers in fuch multitudes as to darken 

 the air. 



Speoris. Tailed bat, with a tranfverfe frontal cavity. 

 This is the pit-nofe bat, and from Schreber's defcription 

 appears to be about the fize of the common bat, and to 

 refemble it in its general afpett, but differing in colour, 

 whicli is a pale yellowifh a(h-brown. Its principal charafter, 

 though not peculiar to it, is a remarkable tranfverfe con- 

 cavity fituated on the forehead, lined with a naked blackifh 

 fl<in ; the nollrils leated in a fimilar concavity at the tip of 

 the nofe. A native of India. 



Vespertii.k), in Conchology, the name of an elegant 

 fpecies of voluta, fuppofed to have fome refemblance to the 

 colour of a bat. 



VESPERTILIONUM AhX, Bats' Wwgs, among 

 ylnatomifls, two broad membranous ligaments, with which 

 the bottom of the womb is tied to the bones of the ilium ; 

 they are fo called from their refembling the wings of a 

 bat. 



VESPERTINE, Vespertinus, in AJlronomy, is when 

 a planet is fecn defcending to the weft after fun-fet. 



VESPIVORUS Bi TEO, in Ornithology, a name given 

 by fome autliors to the bird, called in Englifli the honey- 

 buzzard, from its feeding its young with the maggot worms 

 out of honey-combs. See Apivokus. 



VESPOLA, \\\ Ancient Geography. See Vesboi.a. 



VESPOLATE, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the 

 department of the Gogna ; 6 miles S. of Novara. 



VESPRIN, a town of Hungary, the fee of a bifliop ; 

 i6 miles S.W. of Stuhl WcitTei.burg. N. lat. 47= 4'. E. 

 long. 17^49'. ^ 



VESPUCCI, Amekkjo, in Biography, was the Ion of 

 a Florentine of noble family, and beeann- famous by giving 

 name to tiie largelt quarter of the world. lie was born in 

 1451, and iiaving been educated under a paternal uncle, he 

 wasfent by his father, in the year 1490, to conduA a com- 



mercial concern in Spain. At Seville he vcas informed of 

 the difcoveries made by Columbus, and imbibed the defire 

 of diftinguifiiing himfelf by a fimilar purfuit. Whether he 

 had been previoufly engaged in any nautical expeditions has 

 been a fubjeft of controverfy, fince he has claimed the ho- 

 nour of being the firll difcoverer of the American continent. 

 Of himfelf he fays, that having been engaged by Ferdinand, 

 king of Spain, to proffcute the difcoveries in the New 

 World, he failed from Cadiz in May 1497, and after touch- 

 ing at the Canaries, arrived in thirty-fevcn days at a land 

 which he conceived to be Terra Firnia ; and if this account 

 be true, he muft have anticipated Columbus's view of the 

 coafl of Paria by a whole year. But this expedition de- 

 pends merely on his own Itatement ; and if we confider the 

 high eftimation in which Columbus was held, in the year 

 1497, at the court of Ferdinand and Ifabella, and that he 

 polfefled the privileges of viceroy and governor of all the 

 newly difcovered countries, we cannot fuppofe it credible, 

 that any other perfon fliould be employed to profecute the 

 objeft above Hated. Accordingly it has been generally be- 

 lieved, that Vcfpucci's account of his firft voyage is a mere 

 fiftion, or that it is antedated, in order to fupport his own 

 claims. It has alfo been difputcd, whether in the voyage 

 which he really made in 1499, Vefpucci was a commander 

 or merely a palTenger. It is moll probable that he was a 

 paffenger, and that being fl<ilful in aftronomy, a fcience at 

 that time imperfeftly underllood, he was very ufeful to the 

 navigators, and much efteemed by them. After his return 

 he refided for fome time at Seville ; and upon being re- 

 peatedly invited to the court of Manuel, king of Portugal, 

 lie fecretly quitted Spain, and went to Lifbon, where the 

 king engaged him to undertake a voyage of difcovery. 

 With this view he had the command of three veffels, and 

 failed in May 1501, making land 5^ S. of the equinoftial 

 line, which muft have been Brazil, though he has not men- 

 tioned it. Herrera, however, afferts, that at this time he 

 was with Ojedo in the gulf of Darien, and the difcovery of 

 Brazil is attributed by the Portuguefe to Cabral in the year 

 15OG. But it appears from the teftimony of Peter Martyr, 

 a contemporary writer, that Vefpucci really failed in the 

 fervice of Portugal fome degrees to the fouth of the bne. 

 In May, 1503, he propofed in another voyage purfuing his 

 courfe to the Eaft Indies, but was tiirown on the coafl of 

 Brazil, and moored in the bay of All-Saints, to which he 

 gave name ; and from thence he returned to Lifbon in 1 504. 

 Being again taken into the fervice of Spain, he refided at 

 Seville in 1507, with the title of pilot-major and a yearly 

 ponfion, in confideration of marking out the tracks to be 

 followed by navigators, with the power of examining all 

 pilots. This employment afforded him an opportunity of 

 connecling his own name with new difcoveries ; and as he 

 drew charts for mariners, he dillinguilhed the newly difco- 

 vered countries by the name of " America," as if it were 

 " Amerigo's Land ;" fo that the true difcoverer, notwith- 

 ftanding the complaints of the Spaniards, was defrauded of 

 the honour that belonged to him. Vefpucci, however, can- 

 not vie in the public eflimation with Columbus. He is fup- 

 pofed to have died in 1516, and to have been buried on one 

 of the Azores. Vefpucci drew up a compendium of his 

 four voyages, which was firft publilhed by Simon Grincus, 

 in Ills " Novus Orbis," at Bafi!, in 1537, and afterwards in 

 Ranuilio's CoUedions. Tlie Italian originals were after- 

 wards difcovered and publiflied by B.indini. Tirabofchi. 

 Gen. Biog. 



VESSA, in Ancient Geogniphy, a large and fiourifhing 

 town of Sicily. Phalaris is faid to have taken pofTefFion of 

 it by ftratagem from Tautus, its prince. 



VESSAUX, 



