80 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

Orpen CHEIROPTERA.

VESPERTILIONIDZ.— Bats.

These animals are characterized by having the faculty of
sustained flight, owing to their anterior limbs being formed
like wings, the fingers being extremely long and connected
by a membrane, which in most species extends between the
hind legs, and embraces the tail, where this member is not
wanting. They all possess four large canine teeth; the
other teeth vary considerably. Cheiroptera are divided into
two families. Jstiophori are distinguished by the peculiar
construction of the nose, the skin being expanded into leaf-
like appendages. The second family, Anistiophori, have
the nose simple. These are again divided into sub-families,
those of the first division being distinguished by the more
or less complicated structure of the nose, those of the latter
by the form of the wings.

There are about twenty species of these interesting little .
animals in England; and Mr. Bell rightly observes that
“it is, perhaps, difficult to account for the prejudices
which have always existed against them: that the ancient
Greek and Roman poets, furnished with exaggerated ac-
counts of the animals infesting the remote regions with