526 
MAMMALIA. 
avoid the intense heat of the climate. There they remain all day, 
without being disturbed by the noise and activity of traffic. 
To many persons Bats are objects of dread. Their ambiguous 
nature, their mysterious movements, and their nocturnal habits, 
cause this repulsive feeling. They are associated with Owls and 
other unsociable creatures, and are supposed to share in the same 
malevolent properties. In the time of Moses, they were consigned 
to public opprobrium ; for the Hebrew legislator classed them with 
the unclean animals whose flesh the people of God were forbidden 
to eat. In the middle ages, Bats were supposed to personify the 
Evil One, and were the inseparable companions of witches and 
sorcerers. At present, these ridiculous ideas are no longer in 
vogue ; but Bats continue to be disliked, and the peasant who 
kills one glories so much in the deed that he nails it up on the 
door of his cottage. These animals, however, do not deserve such 
treatment ; indeed, our hatred of them is base ingratitude, for it 
renders us every service. Like the Swallows, which it succeeds in 
the regions of the air at evening, the Bats prevent the multiplica- 
tion of insects noxious to agriculture and an annoyance to the 
human family. In this respect they have a claim on our friend- 
ship. When will Man, then, cease to persecute them ? Such 
would be an act of justice, as well as good policy. 
Bats are found in every region of the globe. Certain species 
are confined to particular regions ; others are absolutely cosmo- 
politan. Conformably to what is observed in all other animals, 
and even in vegetables, it is the warmest countries which fur- 
nish the largest and strongest species. 
The order of Cheiroptera may be divided into three families : 
the Vesper tilionidee, Boussettes, and Vampires. 
Family of VESPEETiLioNiDiE. — The Cheiroptera belonging to 
this family are subdivided into three groups, according to a dis- 
tinction based on the conformation of the nose. In the first 
group are the species with the simple nose, and comprising the 
Taphozons, Hoctilios, Vespertilios, and Molossus ; in the second 
are the species which have the nose pierced by a cavity, — they 
include the single genus Nycteris ; the third comprises the 
species whose nose is surmounted by a cuticle resembling a leaf, 
— they form the genera Bhinolophus and Magadermes. 
