'Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat, It is probable that we had formerly a larger breed of bats in this country than we find at present. One of the workmen employed in the repairs of Cardinal Wolsey's Hall, in Hampton Court Palace, brought me the skeleton of a bat, which he found at the end of one of the rafters of the ceiling. The animal, when alive, must have been as large as a pigeon. The hooks were very strong. The natural history of the bat is very curious, and we have some particulars respecting it in M. St. Hilaire's work, to which I have already referred in speaking of the mole. The claws of the hind feet of the bat are all of an equal length, and thus better adapted for enabling the animal to suspend itself, which it does with the head downwards, that being its natural posture of repose*. By adopting this attitude, the bat, on being disturbed, can readily disengage itself, * A large quantity of bats were lately discovered in an old tree in this neighbourhood, and all of them hanging with their heads downwards. One of them, which I kept under a glass in my room, always turned his back to the light, and did not move during the day. and dropping into the air, can take flight immediately. If, on the contrary, the animal rested upon a surface, it is well known that it could not easily raise itself. Even if it perched with its head upwards, it could not disengage itself so readily, or be aware of the approach of danger, so soon as it does while resting with its head downwards. The wings of the bat serve them as a sort of mantle or cloak when at rest, and in which they sometimes also cover up their young, though they will at other times fly about with two of them hanging to the breast in the act of sucking. The wings, by their delicate structure and extent, serve as feelers to the animal in guiding its flight in the dark. The celebrated naturalist Spallanzani ascertained this to be the case by the following experiment. He hung up some cloths across a long room, with holes in them here and there, large enough for a bat to fly through. He had previously prepared some for this experiment by depriving them of their sight, and, as much as possible, of their hearing. On being turned loose, he found that they flew without the least difficulty through the holes in the cloths. It is inferred, that as they did not anywhere touch the cloth, they must have been warned of their approach to it by feeling the repulse of the air set in motion by their wings, and have distinguished the hole by no such reaction taking place. It was observed in the case of a blind boy, who was coming towards a person who stood perfectly still in the room where he was, that when he had approached within a short distance, he suddenly stopped, stamped with his foot, and then turned off to one side. He must have perceived a difference in the action of the air. But I once observed a still more extraordinary instance of this susceptibility in discovering danger, in the case of a blind horse. I was in the habit of driving this horse in a gig, and by way of experiment I often brought him suddenly up to a closed gate, through which he had probably never before passed, but he always stopped short, and I never could force him against it. This horse was perfectly blind, and must have avoided the gate, in consequence of perceiving that there was some immediate intervening object which obstructed that current of air which he had previously been conscious of. We know that a blind horse will sometimes. step into a hole or a ditch, but he rarely runs himself against a post or a tree. It may be thought that, in these two last instances, the ears assisted in guiding, probably by their being able to perceive a difference in the sound of their step. But to return to the bat. She will sometimes settle on the ground, and when she does this, she shuts up her wings, and is then able to walk and even to run, at a good pace, though with considerable awkwardness. She probably only alights on the ground in search of food when she is unable to procure it on the wing. When on the ground, she runs to find some eminence from which she may raise herself into the air. Bats hybernate by getting into concealed places for security, and they then wrap themselves up in their wings. Bats seem to be gregarious animals. Vast numbers of them were lately found under the roof of an old building in Richmond Park. I had two sorts of them brought to me, nearly similar in shape, but one very considerably larger than the other. This latter is probably the Vespertilio altivolans mentioned by Mr. White in his Natural History of Selborne, answering to his description of it. It measured nearly fifteen inches from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. Its ears were very short, and its fur of a chestnut colour. The place where it was found had a most offensive and noisome smell. These larger bats were quite as numerous as the smaller species. A great number of them were also found in an old building in Coombe Wood adjoining Richmond Park; and subsequently (in. November last) ten of them were discovered in a decayed tree in that Park. This circumstance shows that they do not migrate as Mr. White thinks they may do. I sent live specimens of these bats to the London Zoological Societies. There arise insurmountable difficulties when we go about to 'consider what relation any one body bears to another.'-ED WARDS. Ir is extremely difficult to trace satisfactorily the links of nature's chain,' in the several gradations by which they connect animal and vegetable beings. These links are much more extensive than is generally supposed. Some of them are evident enough, and others we are at a loss to determine whether they should be classed amongst animals or vegetables. Mr. Edwards* seems to think that many of them may be deemed of a middle nature, partaking of both; for, though some of the polype and coralline species seem to adhere by roots, and increase as vegetables do, by shooting forth young polypes from their sides, and by becoming perfect polypes from the divided parts of others, which are marks of vegetation, they have at the same time a power to move their parts, and put forth tentacula or arms, with which they catch small insects whereon they feed, thereby showing that they partake of an animal nature. A person lately sent me an animal which fishermen call a sea-mouse, and which seems to partake of the properties of both fish and insect. It was *See his Essays on Natural History. |