. American animals : a popular guide to the mammals of North America north of Mexico, with intimate biographies of the more familiar species. Mammals -- North America. BATS {Chiropterd) Bats are at once separated from all other mammals by their peculiar modification for flight. The fore-limbs are much elongated, especially the fingers, and a thin extensible membrane stretches over this frame-work, connecting also with the sides of the body and the hind legs. Another membrane stretches between the hind legs, known as the interfemoral membrane. Besides their flying apparatus, bats are peculiar i
. American animals : a popular guide to the mammals of North America north of Mexico, with intimate biographies of the more familiar species. Mammals -- North America. BATS {Chiropterd) Bats are at once separated from all other mammals by their peculiar modification for flight. The fore-limbs are much elongated, especially the fingers, and a thin extensible membrane stretches over this frame-work, connecting also with the sides of the body and the hind legs. Another membrane stretches between the hind legs, known as the interfemoral membrane. Besides their flying apparatus, bats are peculiar in having their hind legs twisted around in such a way that the knee bends back- wards, which render it exceedingly difficult for them to walk, a mere flapping shuffle being the result of their best efforts. On the wing, however, their movements are exceedingly graceful, and they turn and v/heel in their varied evolutions with the greatest ease. Other structures frequently mentioned in the description of bats are the peculiar leaf-like appendages to the nose and the elongated lobe of the ear or tragus. In their general anatomy and in their den- tition, bats show a closer relationship to the insectivora (shrews and moles), and may, indeed, be regarded as a highlv specialized off-shoot from that group. Bats are distributed in all parts of the world, and vary in size from the small mouse-like species to the big flying foxes of the Malay region, the expanded wings of which measure as much as thirty inches from tip to tip. ^ , r, . T- • These large bats and their allies are fruit Ear of Bat, showing o tragus. (A/ur Miuer) eaters, but the majority of the species, including all our Eastern American bats, are insectivorous, and feed while on the wing. Bats are nocturnal in habits, and seem to be most active at dusk and early in the morning, just before dawn. The hours of day-time they spend at rest, hanging head downward by their. '93. Please note that these images are extracted from
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