sed cuteis pennis membranave. Horum quoque alæ articulos habent! et volucrum animal parit vespertilio tantum. Dentes habet ut quadrupes, et lacte foetum nutrit admovens ubera que pectori gestat" [Ed. Wotton, Oxoniensis]. Notwithstanding a knowledge of these most decisive characters, the general delusion was but little checked; and it was left for Ray, to whom naturalists are so much indebted, and on so many points, to expunge this error from our systems of zoology. He stated and settled the question with his usual perspicacity." Vespertilio. NoxTepis. The Bat, or Flittermouse. Hoc animal male a nonnullis avibus accensetur ob alas et volatum cum nec pennatum sit, nec rostratum, nec oviparum, quæ certae et characteristicæ avium notæ sunt, ut alia multa omittam. Præter alas enim et volatum nihil fere cum avibus commuffe habet, sed per omnia cum animalibus quadrupedibus viviparis convenit. Nec major est ratio cur vespertilio quam car lacerta alata avibus annumeretur" [Raii Syn. Anim.]

Since this period, no doubt has been entertained, amongs naturalists, as to their first locality; all have followed Ray's example; and Seba, in his splendid work soon after 'pub-" lished, expressly calls them beasts, "Hæ bestiæ," in contradistinction to the other tribes. Still the general statement long! concurred with popular authority to perpetuate the creed that? “the bat is a small bird" [Bailey, &c.], and this the modern Scotch name, backie-bird, may sufficiently attest.sumi zivs"

The Linnæan classification of bats with men and monkeys was noticed in the illustrations of the last-mentioned type;" and the unnatural association of the so called primates, was then objected to as also in a former essay; qv: Journal of Science No. I p. 392, No. VIII. p. 300. Pennant, whod rejected this division, said, "vanity would not suffer him to rank mankind with apes and bats ;" and later zoologists have followed this example, though doubtless from a better cause." Wingedi quadrupeds they were termed by Pennant, a less objectionable name than Cheiroptera, or hand-winged beasts, I by which it has been lately superseded. The anterior extremities of bats are not hands, and therefore it is to be lamented that hand-winged should be preferred to wing-footed, which it meeting a classical translation in Alipes, is not only more euphonious but also more acorrectup Thus as manupeda,"

manupeds, or hand-footed beasts, not unfitly denotes the apes, the monkeys, and the lemurs; alipeda, alipeds, or wing-footed beasts, may in like manner designate the bats and their allies; while quadrupeda, quadrupeds, will comprehend all the true four-footed beasts, of which and the other types more shall be said hereafter.

Bats, even when Linnæus wrote, were comparatively but little known. Six species are all that he enumerates as belonging to the genus Vespertilio, and to this by him was the family confined; for galeopithecus he thought a lemur, and noctilio was misplaced among the glires. Since then they have much increased, both in dignity and importance, for modern researches have added so greatly to their variety and number, that this single genus hath become the common type of several; about forty being already known, and nearly one hundred and fifty species have been described. Our know ledge of these animals, however, is still imperfect; yet we have learnt enough to protest with Pennant against those dental methods of arrangement, which would separate a series so well allied, and scatter the type through several orders of the class of beasts: e. g. Brisson took Pteropus from the bats and allied it with the monkeys, and the lemurs from the monkies, and allied them with the bats, &c. &c.

The teeth, from the number and variety of which the characters for orders in the class mammalia of Linnæus, and quadrupeda of Brisson, are chiefly, and in the first place, drawn, although invaluable as subordinate diagnostics, greatly fail, as indeed all single characteristics must, when generalised for the distribution of an entire class. Such schemes when spread on paper, vaunt that imposing feature, great simplicity; but, in the museum and the field, they form no easy task. Nothing would seem more facile than to count the teeth, beginning with the toothless, as the anteater, and passing by the elephant, the stag, and the mouse, to the monkey, the bat, and the seal; until the series terminates with those possessed of the greatest number and variety; as the bear, the mole, and the opossum; yet such is not the case, for we find naturalists the most astute, differing not only with each other on this point, but often with themselves; and if the veterans are at fault, how shall such a plan to the student be a guide ?

The teeth are in general described, and with sufficient accuracy for common purposes, as incisors, canines, and molars i, e. cutters, tearers, and grinders; although the canines are often indistinguishable as such, or so situated as to be unfitted for that duty; and the incisors and molars, as in bats, are not unfrequently so jagged and set with points, as to be piercing and tearing rather than grinding teeth. Indeed, in the type now under consideration, the dental system is quite anomalous; for not only do the genera vary extremely in the number and character of their teeth, but the transitions are so obscure, that zoologists greatly differ in their descriptions; and Fred. Cuvier, who has paid much attention to this subject, differs from his predecessors, more than even they differ from each other. Furthermore, the teeth of many appear to be fugacious, and to change so much at different periods, that the same bat has occasionally been two or three times described as a different species, or even genus, according as teeth have been lost from age or accident. Hence only can we account for the discrepancies alluded to: and this has been thought to be the case with some of the proposed subgenera of Rafinesque, more especially as he states the incisors to be very far apart, to be absent, &c. It must be in the recollection of many that the casual loss of the incisor teeth in the prochilus led to a curious misnomer of that animal; and it is still called the ursine sloth, a monument of the impolicy of trusting to any single artificial sign; for had the natural characters been examined, such a mistake could never have occurred. Any character rather than the number of teeth should be resorted to in the arrangement of bats, for in no series of animals are variations, fortuitous and natural, more frequent: hence even subgenera established on these circumstances alone should not be received without jealous scrutiny. From another source the true diagnosis must be drawn, and with an outline of the characters of the type, the races, and the kinds, these observations shallTM conclude; a synopsis of the genera will be added; at present, to define these latter, would be foreign to my plan, and swell this paper to an inconvenient length: indeed, I am not satisfied that all have been duly ascertained, though such as have been established on creditable authority could not be well omitted.

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Type ALIPEDA, Alipeds, wing-footed beasts, (Cheiroptera, Volitantia). Bats and their allies; extremities, especially fore-legs, instructed with pannicles, serving for more or less perfect sus pension in the air; strong clavicles, large scapula; cubits, almost fixed in a state between pronation and supination, capable of very obscure rotation. Pectoral mamma, in some genera pubial papilla; teeth of three kinds, more or less distinct; in number, form, and duration anomalous.

This type includes about forty genera, the common index, viz., the volant form, obvious; the subordinate characters Three races or less evident, and occasionally obscure.

districts may be traced, the third of which at least is divisible; further discoveries will probably lead us to correct all present distributions.

1st Race, PLEURONYCTERATES, Vaulters, or feline bats (Lemur volans, Galeopithecus). Digits of all the extremities of nearly equal lengths; pannicle a parachute attached to the sides and legs, not predominating on the anterior members; all the digits. furnished with nails, those of the fore-paws very crooked. Incisors, short and jagged; canines, ambiguous; molars rough; cæcum large. This race, or district? contains but a single kind.

Kind, Pleuropteridæ, and of this kind but a single genus as yet is known; formerly esteemed a Lemur, and called L. Volans, since Galeopithecus, or feline ape, both very inappropriate terms, as it hath as little in common with the manupeda, if not less, than its congeners, and neither in teeth nor intestines does it associate with beasts of prey, even so much as the other bats. Pleuropterus or Dermopterus world either form a more fitting name,

2d Race, MEGANYCTERATES, Roussettes, or Greater Bats (Harpies). Anterior digits lengthened and wing-like, fore-index generally with a nail, thumbs separate, but not opposable; incisors, canines, and molars truly cutting, tearing, and grinding teeth, the latter truncated, rough, but not pointed, a longitudinal groove traversing the whole; no cæcum, frugivorous: interfemoral membrane but little developed. External ear always single. The genera may be referred to one kind.

Kind, Pteropusidæ, although it is probable they will hereafter, or would even now, admit of subdivision.

3d Race, NYCTERATES. True bats, (Rere-mouse, or Flitter-mouse). Anterior members wing-like, incisors variable, jagged; molars pointed: insectivorous. External ear furnished with an auricle, more or less complex.

Kinds, Noctilionidæ, Rere-bats; fore-index 2 osseous phalanges, middle digit. 3.

Vespertilionidae. flitter-bats, fore-index 1 osseous phalanx, other digits only 2.