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belongs, but it also possesses the additional recommendation of being unquestionably the rarest known species. Very little was known of it till a living individual was brought to Europe, and figured by M. Cuvier, in his splendid work. A specimen in the collection at Exeter 'Change has since been noticed by Mr Griffith.

The color of this animal is of a bright rufous brown above, and that of the under parts a deep black. The tail is perfectly black. The hair of the upper parts and tail is extremely long, soft, and woolly. The eyes are lively and expressive. From the nose to the root of the tail, it measures about sixteen inches, and the tail itself is still longer.

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THIS animal is so sluggish in its motions, that some have been erroneously induced to consider it as a sloth. It is about the size of a small cat, and has a flattish face, a nose rather sharp, and extremely prominent eyes; it is of a pale brown or mouse color; round the eyes is a circle of dark brown, and along the middle of the back runs a stripe of the same color. During the greatest part of the day it sleeps, or at least lies without motion.

1 Nycticebus Bengalensis, Geoff. Lemur tardigrada, Lin. The genus Nycticebus has two or four upper, and six lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; twelve upper and ten lower molars. Intermediate incisors separate; lateral, small or none; anterior molars with one point; those at the bottom with a large crown, hollow in the centre, and tubercles at the angles; body thick; members robust; head round; muzzle short, not turned up; eyes very large, approaching, and directed forward; ears short and hairy; two pectoral mamma; a very short tail; bones of the leg and arm distinct; tibia longer than the femur; tarsus and metatarsus of equal length. Inhabits Bengal, Ceylon, and Java.

One of these animals is described by the late Sir William Jones, in the fourth volume of the Asiatic Researches. "In his manners," says he, "he was for the most part gentle, except in the cold season, when his temper seems wholly changed; and his Creator who made him so sensible of cold, to which he must often have been exposed, even in his native forests, gave him, probably for that reason, his thick fur; which we rarely see on animals in these tropical climates. To me, who not only constantly fed him, but bathed him twice a week in water accommodated to the seasons, and whom he clearly distinguished from others, he was at all times grateful; but when I disturbed him in winter, he was usually indignant, and seemed to reproach me with the uneasiness which he felt, though no possible precautions had been omitted to keep him in a proper degree of warmth. At all times he was pleased at being stroked on the head and throat, and he frequently suffered me to touch his extremely sharp teeth: but his temper was always quick; and when he was unseasonably disturbed, he expressed a little resentment, by an obscure murmur, like that of a squirrel; or a greater degree of displeasure by a peevish cry, especially in winter, when he was often as fierce, on being much importuned, as any beast of the woods.

"From half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset, he slept without intermission, rolled up like a hedgehog; and, as soon as he awoke, he began to prepare himself for the labors of his approaching day, licking and dressing himself like a cat; an operation which the flexibility of his neck and limbs enabled him to perform very completely he was then ready for a slight breakfast, after which he commonly took a short nap; but when the sun was quite set, he recovered all his vivacity.

"His ordinary food was the sweet fruit of this country; plantains always, and mangoes during the season; but he refused peaches, and was not fond of mulberries, or even of guiavas: milk he lapped eagerly, but was content with plain water. In general, he was not voracious, but he never appeared satiated with grasshoppers; and passed the whole night, while the hot season lasted, in prowling for them. When a grasshopper, or any insect, alighted within his reach, his eyes, which he fixed on his prey, glowed with uncommon fire; and having drawn himself back, to spring on it with greater force, he seized the prey with both his fore paws, but held it in one of them while he devoured it. For other purposes, and sometimes even for that of holding his food, he used all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequently grasped with one of them the higher parts of his ample cage, while his three others were severally engaged at the bottom of it; but the posture of which he seemed fondest, was to cling with all four of them to the wires, his body being inverted. In the evening, he usually stood erect for many minutes, playing on the wires with his fingers, and rapidly moving his body from side to side, as if he had found the utility of exercise in his unnatural state of confinement.

"A little before day-break, when my early hours gave me frequent opportunities of observing him, he seemed to solicit my attention; and if I presented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it with great gentleness, but eagerly took fruit when I offered it, though he seldom ate much at his morning repast: when the day brought back his night, his eyes lost their lustre and strength, and he composed himself for a slumber of ten or eleven hours.

"My little friend was, on the whole, very engaging; and when he was found lifeless, in the same posture in which he would naturally have slept, I consoled myself with believing that he died without much pain, and lived with as much pleasure as he could have enjoyed in a state of captivity."

ORDER THIRD-CHEIROPTERA.

THESE animals are in their general form disposed for flight. Their incisors are variable in number; canines more or less strong; molars sometimes covered with points, sometimes furrowed longitudinally; a fold of skin between the four members and the fingers of the anterior feet; two pectoral mamma; very strong clavicles; scapulae large: fore arms not capable of rotation.

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An animal, which, like the bat, is half quadruped and half bird, and which, in fact, is neither the one nor the other, is a kind of monster. In the bat, the fore feet are, properly speaking, neither wings nor feet, though the animal uses them for the purpose of flying, and occasionally of moving along upon the ground. They are, in fact, two shapeless extremities, of which the bones are of a monstrous length, and connected by a membrane, not covered with feathers, or even with hair, like the rest of the body: they are a kind of winged paws, or hands, ten times larger than the feet, and in all, four times longer than the whole length of the body of the animal: they are, in a word, parts which have rather the appearance of a capricious and accidental, than a regular and determined production.

To these incongruities, these disproportions of the body and members, may be added the still more striking deformities of the head. In some species, the nose is hardly visible, the eyes are sunk near the tip of the ear, and are confounded with the cheeks; in others, the ears are as long as the body, or else the face is twisted into the form of a horse-shoe, and the nose covered with a kind of crust. Averse, likewise, to the society of all other creatures, they shun the light, inhabit none but dark and gloomy places, to which, after their nocturnal excursions, they are sure to return by break of day, and in which they remain, fixed, as it were, to the walls, till night again approaches.

Their motion in the air is with less propriety to be termed a flight, than a kind of uncertain flutter, which they seem to execute by struggles, and in an awkward manner. They raise themselves from the ground with difficulty, never soar to a great height, and are but imperfectly qualified to accelerate, or even to direct, their flight. This, far from being either rapid or very direct, is performed by hasty vibrations in an oblique and winding direction; and in passing along they do not fail to seize all the gnats, moths, and other nocturnal insects that come in their way. These they swallow entire; and in their excrements we meet with the remains of wings and the other dry parts, which they have not been able to digest. Like quadru peds, the bat brings forth its young alive, and like them it has teeth and nipples.

From the observations of Spallanzani, it appears that many of the bats possess an additional sense, by which, when deprived of seeing, they are enabled to avoid any obstacles that may be in the way of their flight.

It is affirmed that these animals do not produce more than two at a birth, and that these they suckle, and even carry along with them as they fly. They unite in numbers to defend each other from the cold; they pass the winter without awaking, without stirring, and without eating, from the end of autumn till spring. Though they can more easily support hunger than cold, and can even subsist a number of days without food, they yet belong to the number of carnivorous animals; for, when opportunity serves, they will devour bacon, and meat of all kinds, whether raw or roasted, whether fresh or corrupted.

VAMPIRE BATS.

THE ROUSSETTE, THE ROUGETTE, AND THE SPECTRE

BAT.3

THE roussette and the rougette seem to form two distinct species, which, however, are so full of resemblances to each other, that they ought not to be presented asunder. The latter differs from the former solely in the size

1 Pteropus vulgaris, GEOFF. The genus Pteropus has four upper and four lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and twelve lower molars. Molars with the crown truncated obliquely, and marked with a longitudinal furrow; head, long and comical; ears short, simple, with auricles; no crest or nasal appendage; tail short,or none; interfemoral membrane sloped off. An additional phalanx and nail on the index finger of the wings; tongue papillous.

2 Pteropus stramineus, GEOFF.

3 Phyllostoma spectrum, LIN. The genus Phyllostoma has four upper and four lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and ten or twelve lower molars. Lateral incisors very small, the intermediate ones broader; head, long and conical; nose with two nasal crests, one like a leaf, the other of a horse-shoe form; ears large, naked, not united. Auricle internal, dentated; eyes small and lateral; tongue rough with horny papillæ; tail and interfemoral membrane more or less developed.

of the body and the colors of the hair. The roussette, whose hair is of a reddish brown, is in length nine inches from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail, and in breadth three or even four feet, when the membranes, which serve it for wings, are fully extended. The rougette, whose hair is of a reddish ash-color, is hardly more than five inches and a half in length, and two feet in breadth; and its neck is half encircled with a stripe of hair of a lively red, intermixed with orange color, of which we perceive no vestige on the neck of the roussette. They both belong nearly to the same hot climates of the old continent. We meet with them in Madagascar, in the island of Bourbon, in Ternate, in the Philippine and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, where, indeed, they seem to be more common than in the neighboring continents.

The smell of these creatures is ranker than that of a fox, yet the Indians consider them as delicious food, and the French who reside in the Isle of Bourbon, even boil them in their soup to give it a relish! The hair of the vampire bat, interwoven with threads of cyperus squamosus, is used by the natives of New Caledonia for making ropes and the tassels of their clubs.

In the hotter countries of the New World, and in some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we likewise meet with another flying quadruped, of which we know not the American name, but to which we will affix the denomination of spectre, because it sucks the blood of men, and of animals, while they are asleep, without causing even sufficient pain to awake them.

The spectre is smaller than the rougette, which is itself smaller than the roussette. The former, when it flies, seems to be of the size of a pigeon; the second, of the size of a raven; and the third, of the size of a large hen. Of both, the roussette and the rougette, the head is tolerably well shaped; the ears are short, and the nose is very round, and nearly in form like that of a dog. Of the spectre, on the contrary, the nose is more elongated; the aspect is as hideous as that of the ugliest bats; the head is unshapely, and the ears large, very open, and very straight; its nose is disfigured; its nostrils resemble a funnel, and have a membrane at the top, which rises up in the form of a sharp horn, or cock's comb, and greatly heightens the deformity of its face.

There is no doubt, therefore, but that the species of the spectre is different from those of the roussette and the rougette. It is an animal not less mischievous than it is deformed; it is the pest of man, the torment and destruction of animals. In confirmation of this truth, a more authentic testimony cannot be produced than that of M. de la Condamine. "The bats," says he, "which suck the blood of horses, of mules, and even of men, when they do not guard against it by sleeping under the shelter of a pavilion, are a scourge common to most of the hot countries of America. Of these there are some of a monstrous size. At Borja, and several other places, they have entirely

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