t ,6 + ] 



Linnasus hath clafFed it with his primates, at the head of which 

 ftands Man; a more natural arrangement, perhaps, might have, 

 exalted this animal to the order of angels, as they are depicted 

 with wings as well as teats. 



I never met with any one who had tafted a Bat; and, indeed,, 

 with us they are fo diminutive, that the morfel mould be as 

 delicate as it is fmall. In the ifland of Mauritius, however,, 

 where they are very large d , the Teamen confider them as dainties* 

 *' They are innumerable, and fome as large as gofhawks, and 

 " th^e feamen cafe them as rabbits; they hang in fwarms on the 

 <c boughs of the trees, by claws fixed at the extreme part of their 

 66 wings, and their monkey faces turned downwards e ." In the 

 time of falconry they were given to hawks as a remedy for the 

 falling-fcknefs. 



From its likenefs to a moufe, the fynonym is formed in 

 many languages, the French terming it chauve-fouris and rat- 

 pennade. The Dutch, Vleermuys. The Germans, Fleder-maufch- 

 The Danes, Flaggermuus. The Swedes, Flader-mus. The Spa- 

 niards, Mur- cielago. As for our modern name of Bat, I do not 

 know whence we apply it to this animal, but it was anciently 

 called reremoufe, from the Anglo-Saxon hjiepemur 1 . Our blafo- 

 ners alio ufe this word. In the Greek and Latin, however, 

 the name is taken from its appearing only during the night 

 yvKTigig & vefpertiiio. 



" Seroque trahunt a vefpere nomen." Ovid. 



Different fpecies, or varieties of Bats, are found in mofr. quarters 

 both of the Old and New World ; but for an enumeration of thefe 



d A fpecimen from that illand may be feen in Sir Alhton Lever's mofr. 

 capital Mufeum. Kircher, in his China Illuftrata, gives us an engraving 

 of a Bat of Indoftan, whofe head exadtly refembles in lize and figure that 

 of a cat, and is therefore called the Flying Cat. 



e Herbert's Travels, p. 360. — Le chauve-fouris. eft fort au gre des 

 Indiens, ils font fort grandes & font beaucoup de degat aux fruity 

 & aux arbrcs. Linfchoten, p. 124. 



I (hall 



