34 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

supposed that they feel a different resistance in the air in
time to avoid the obstacle, but by what sensation, or by
what means, it is very difficult to determine: the existence
of such a faculty in this and many other nocturnal animals
is, however, a proof of the wisdom and goodness of the
Creator.

- Bats are very numerous on the banks of the Nile, where
insects abound: in India also, they swarm in the stupen-
dous caves, which have been hewn with so much care and
labour into temples, now almost deserted, and abandoned to
bats and reptiles; in New Holland they are also very nume-
rous, and in the South Sea Islands species of a large size are
found in profusion. The vampire, of which so many exag-
gerated accounts have been published, is found in South
America. It is accused, not only of sucking the blood of -
single individuals, or animals, but of destroying whole herds
of cattle, when these were first introduced by the mission-
aries. Many of the stories related are no doubt based on
trath, though going much beyond it in details, for notwith-
standing that bats are, on the whole, far more useful than
hurtful to man, they have, from their peculiar appearance,
dismal habitations, and the time of their flight, been
ereatures to which poets have frequently had recourse, to