attitude of rest of some of the Fruit Bats. From the fifth digit the wing
membrane is extended to the hind-limb, the knee of which is directed backwards,
and from thence it stretches to the tail, which is held, both when at rest and when
in flight, in different positions in various species, being sometimes folded forwards
and sometimes backwards.
The mammas are two in number and are placed on the breast. The external
and internal development of the reproductive organs resemble those of the Primates,
while the brain is of a low order, to be compared, rather, with that of the
Insectivores. The ears in the insectivorous Bats are peculiar in the fact that the
outer and inner sides start from separate bases, and not from a common point
as is the case in the Fruit-eating Bats; they are often exaggerated to a remarkable
degree, being larger in proportion to the > size of the animal than in any other
class of mammals. The tragus, earlet, or ear-covering, as it is variously called,
is also frequently proportionately large. The remarkable shape of the nose,
nostrils, and the surrounding development, is characteristic of some of the insectivorous
B ats : this extraordinary ornamentation is sometimes extended to the lower
lip; and the face of the animal, with its small deep-set eyes, is certainly quaint,
and to some minds repulsively hideous. None of our native Bats, however, can
rival the Tomb Bats of Egypt in this respect; they certainly carry off the palm
for ugliness in a world of beautiful creatures.
Like the true seals, most of the Bats are furnished with cusped teeth, those
of the cheeks especially possessing sharp cusps (separated by transverse grooves)
which are well adapted to hold and crush the insects, many of them hard-bodied,
on which they live. Most Bats possess a large number of teeth, sometimes to the
number of thirty-eight, which consist of two pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, and
three in the lower; a pair of canines, occasionally of remarkable strength for the
size of the animal, three pairs of premolars, and three pairs of molars in each jaw.
These teeth are, comparatively speaking, powerful or otherwise according to the
nature of the insects which are preyed upon; for instance, while the Greater Horseshoe,
the Serotine, and the Noctule Bats, which feed largely on big. flying beetles
— dors and chafers— possess large and strong teeth, the Whiskered, the Pipistrelle,
and Daubenton’s Bats, which subsist on smaller and, as a rule, softer-bodied
creatures, have small teeth.
Bats, though occasionally tempted out on warm still days, are crepuscular or
nocturnal in their habits. We generally observe them in the evening, when
they are hawking for their food— insects, which are captured, at various elevations.