THE HORSESHOE BAT. 
10T 
able position for taking to the air, and when they desire to fly need only to spread their 
wings, and loosing their foothold, to launch themselves into the air. 
There may be, and probably are, other reasons for the curious reversed attitude, but that 
which has already been given accounts in some measure for it. Even among the birds 
examples are found of a similar mode of repose ; members of the genus Colius, an African group 
of birds, sleep suspended like the bats, clinging with their feet, and hanging with their heads 
downwards. But these birds cannot assume this attitude for the purpose of taking to flight, 
as their wings are used as readily as those of most other feathered creatures, and therefore the 
reason which was given for the reversed position of the bats will not apply to the birds. 
On the nose of the Vampire Bat may be observed a curious membrane of a leaf -like shape. 
This strange and not prepossessing appendage to the animal is found in some of the bats which 
THE GREAT HORSESHOE BAT .—Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum. 
inhabit Great Britain. Among the bats which possess the leaf-decorated nose, the Great 
Horseshoe Bat is the most conspicuous. In its wings and body it differs but very little 
from other bats. 
The membrane which gives to this creature the title of Horseshoe Bat, is extremely large 
in proportion to the size of the animal, though not so large as in some of the foreign bats. It 
is double in form, that portion which is in front resembling a horseshoe in shape, and curving 
from the lips upwards, so as to embrace the nostrils. The second leafy membrane is placed on 
the forehead, and is sharply pointed. 
The ears of this bat are large, pointed, and marked with a succession of ridges, which 
extend from the margins nearly half-way across the ears. The “tragus,” or inner ear, is 
wanting in this bat, but its office seems to be fulfilled by a large rounded lobe at the base 
of the ear. * 
The color of the fur is gray with a slight tinge of red above, while on the under portions 
of the animal the ruddy tint vanishes, and the hair is of a very pale gray. The membrane 
is of a dusky hue. The bat is not a very large one, the length of the head and body being 
only two inches and a half, while that of the extended wings is about thirteen inches. The 
ears are half an inch in breadth, when measured at their widest part, and are about three- 
quarters of an inch in length. 
What may be the object of the wonderful nasal appendage seems to be quite unknown. 
The most obvious idea is, that it is given to the animals for the purpose of increasing the 
