THE LIVING WORLD. 
455 
mythology has been the honey-cup of all imaginative writers of succeeding 
peoples, and hence again human teachings would lead one to associate with the 
^^ peculiarities none the less alarming because preposterous. Still farther the 
rapid motions and ever- 
changing directions of flight, 
the darkness amidst which 
it exerts its activity, and the 
isolation of the places which 
it selects for its abode, all 
unite to deepen the impres¬ 
sion with which one’s early 
education leaves him. Art¬ 
ists, likewise,—those men 
who address the eye and the 
imagination so effectively,— 
have so associated the bat 
with the horrible and the long klked bat (Plecotus auritus). 
repulsive, that even the 
witches, whose attendants the bats are so often made, seem human and beau¬ 
tiful in comparison. Demonology has interest of its own, but the evil demon 
is represented as having a 
bat-like appearance, so that 
the poor creature seems to 
have been cursed on all 
sides. Among the Orient¬ 
als, however, the bat is no 
harbinger of misfortune, 
suffering, or crime, but the 
accepted precursor of good 
long winged bat (. Miniopteris) >. luck, happiness, and virtue; 
and in some countries the bat is even converted into a cherished household 
favorite. It has been said that the bats differed among themselves greatly in 
the matter of habits. Many of them, 
though giving birth to twins, raise 
but one of the young, thus intui¬ 
tively accepting the Spartan method 
of limiting population and destroy¬ 
ing the weak and unpromising. In 
some species, the male is the one 
provided with breasts for the nour¬ 
ishment of the young—a circum¬ 
stance less surprising to those who, 
like myself, have known men whose 
mammary glands secreted quite 
copious supplies of milk. In other 
species, again, the males use their 
superior strength in carrying the young while these are too weak to care for them¬ 
selves. Thus does the animal creation suggest many an analogue or teach many 
a lesson to its highest order—Man. There are men, and their number is 
gray clap nosed bat (Rhinopoma rnicrophyflum). 
