128 
LONG-EARED BAT. 
Touch cannot^ in this case, supply the place of 
sight, because an animal covered with hair cannot 
be supposed to have that sense very deUcate. In 
flying through the middle of a sewer which turned 
at right angles, the Bats regularly bent their flight 
at the curvature, though two feet distant from the 
walls. They discovered holes for their retreat; 
found a resting-place on the cornice; avoided the 
branches of trees suspended in a room; flew 
through threads hung perpendicularly from the 
ceiling, without touching, though they were 
scarcely at a greater distance than that of their 
extended wings; and when the threads were 
brought nearer they contracted their wings to 
pass through them. They equally avoided every 
obstacle, though the whole head was covered 
with a varnish made of sandarach dissolved in 
spirit of wine. 
The ear could not have discovered a cornice 
or the threads: this sense, therefore, does not 
compensate the want of vision. Besides, Bats fly 
equally well when the ear is most carefully co- 
vered. The smell might possibly assist them ; for 
when the nose was stopped, they breathed with 
difficulty, and soon fell. While they did fly, how- 
ever, they avoided obstacles very well ; and the 
smell could scarcely have assisted them in disco- 
vering the suspended threads. The taste must 
have been, in every respect, unequal to the task 
of supplying the place of sight." 
From Mr. Jurin's anatomical observations on 
these animals, it appears that a very large propor- 
