SFNSFS OF BATS. 
263 
wire, sometimes by removing the organs altogether, and even filling up the orbits with wax, and then 
allowed them to fly. In spite of the mutilation, the unfortunate little creatures continued quite lively, 
and flew about as well as those which still retained their eyes ; they did not strike against the walls 
of the room, or the objects in it, avoided a stick held up before them, and showed a greater desire to 
keep out of the way of a Cat or the hand of a man than to escape contact with inanimate objects. 
One of these blinded Bats was set free in a long underground passage, which turned at right angles 
about its middle. It flew through the two branches of this passage, and turned, without approaching 
BAKBASTEL1E WALKING. 
the side walls. During its flight it detected a small cavity in the roof at a distance of eighteen inches, 
and immediately changed its course in order to conceal itself in this retreat. In a garden a sort of 
cage was prepared, with nets, and from its top sixteen strings were allowed to hang down. Two 
Bats were introduced into this enclosure, one blinded, the other with its eyes perfect. Both flew about 
freely, never touching the strings with more than the tips of the wings. Finally, the blind Bat dis- 
covered that the meshes of the enclosing net were large enough for it to get through, and made its 
escape; and, after flying about for a time, made its way rapidly and 
directly to the only roof in the neighbourhood, in which it disappeared. 
In a room containing numerous branches of trees, or in which silk 
threads, stretched by small weights, were suspended from the ceiling, 
the Bats, though blinded, avoided all these obstacles ; and when, after 
tiring themselves with their aerial evolutions, they settled on some object 
for the sake of rest, they would immediately rise again on an attempt 
being made to seize them with the hand. 
From these experiments it was perfectly clear that in threading the 
galleries of caverns and other narrow and pitch-dark places to which 
Bats commonly resort for their diumal repose, thes3 animals were 
guided by some other sense than that of sight, and the worthy abbe set 
himself to ascertain what this sense might be. He commenced opera- 
tions by covering the body of one of his blind Bats with varnish, and 
found that this had no effect in rendering its movements uncertain. He then stopped up the ears 
with wax, and finally with melted sealing-wax, and still the Bats obstinately persisted in avoiding 
obstacles placed in their way. Consequently they did not hear their way in the dark. There 
remained the senses of smell and taste. To test the former the nostrils were stuffed up, but the 
only effect of this operation was to bring the creature speedily to the ground, owing to difficulty of 
HEAD OF LONG-EAllED BAT. 
