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WHAT ARE BATS? 
By St. GEORGE MIVART, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
[PLATE CXXXYI.] 
HE group of animals called “ Bats ” is one full of interest to 
those specially occupied with the study of animal struc- 
ture — the anatomist, the physiologist, and the philosophical 
zoologist. At the same time it must he confessed that bats are 
far from exciting that general interest which in fact they merit* 
This disregard, however, is very natural. The small size of the 
hats inhabiting this and other parts of the temperate regions of 
the globe conspires with their nocturnal habits to remove them 
from general observation, while the great similarity one to 
another of their different species is an obstacle to their popu- 
larity even amongst zoologists — since it makes their discrimina- 
tion and classification a matter of difficulty. 
Yet bats are, as I hope we shall see, really very interesting 
animals. The bat exhibits to us the body of a beast, specially 
modified to live the life of a bird, and at the same time serves 
to give us a fair conception of certain ancient reptilian forms, 
the remains of which are found deeply buried in deposits made 
untold ages ago — in the secondary rocks. 
But what is a bat, ? Probably not one of my readers would 
be likely, if called upon to answer, to fall into the old error of 
considering it a kind of bird ! 
All who have ever examined a bat closely, and observed its 
fur, ears, and teeth, must, I think, have recognised it as a kind 
of beast. Its real affinities, however, serve excellently well to 
demonstrate how little mere external aspect can be trusted as 
a guide to fundamental relationship. The bat is essentially an 
animal of the air — all its structure is modified for flight, and it 
rarely descends to the surface of the ground. The moZe, on the 
contrary, is essentially an animal of the earth — all its structure 
is modified for burrowing, and it rarely ascends to the surface 
of the ground. The contrast could hardly be more complete, 
and yet the bat and the mole are cousins — the mole, the hedge- 
VOL. XV. XO. LX. Q 
