Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/665

Rh bats, when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease from the floor. ..."

So far, we have contented ourselves with treating of bats simply as such, and without reference to their internal structure, their relationship with other animals, or even their differences among themselves; much less have we approached the deeper questions of their origin and destiny—the probabilities as to their ancestry, and the possibilities as to their more or less remote descendants.

In the same way the astronomer may, for a time, speak of a comet only as a certain well-known celestial phenomenon, which may be as obvious to the unaided vision of the ignorant as to his own. But, sooner or later, he cannot refrain from discussing its chemical and physical condition, its course through space, its relations to other comets and to the stars, and, finally, its probable origin from nebulous matter, and its possible transformation into a world like our own.

The comparison may be carried one step farther. For, to the ignorant and superstitious the sudden apparition of a blazing comet has often been a portent of disaster, while even the intelligent shrink with aversion from the flitting bat, and make comparisons with evil spirits.



It must be admitted that most bats are "uncanny" in their aspect, and unfriendly in disposition; while the legends of blood-thirsty vampires have only too much foundation in fact.

But it is only fair to them (the bat family) to admit that the number of species which thus injure men and the larger animals is very small; and that, while all of our own bats, and most of those of other lands, are fierce devourers of insects, and use their sharp teeth for defense against their captors, there are many kinds, especially the larger (Roussettes, etc.), which live almost wholly upon fruits, and are,