Though all beings are equally perfect in themselves, as coming from the
hands of the Creator, yet, in their relation to man, some appear more
accomplished, and others more imperfect or deformed. The former are
those whose figures are agreeable to us, and which we esteem complete,
because all their parts are well connected, their members proportioned,
and their functions easy and natural. The latter are those whose
qualities are offensive to us, whose nature deviates from other beings,
and whose forms differ from those whence we drew our first sensations,
and those ideas which serve to model our judgments. The head of a
man upon the neck of a horse, its body covered with feathers, and
terminated with the tail of a fish, is a picture of enormous deformity,
only because it is an assemblage of the most incongruous diversities
of nature. An animal, like the bat, which is half quadruped and half
bird, and which, in fact, is neither the one nor the other, is a kind
of monster, because it unites the attributes of two such different
genera, and resembles none of those models presented to us in the
grand classes of Nature. It is an imperfect quadruped, and a still
more imperfect bird; as a quadruped it should have four feet, and as a
bird it should have feathers and wings. In the bat the fore feet are,
properly, neither feet nor wings, though the animal uses them for the
purpose of flying and dragging himself along the ground; they are two
shapeless extremities, of which the bones are of an enormous length,
and connected by a membrane neither covered with feathers nor hair like
the rest of the body; they are a kind of small wings or winged paws,
in which we only see one claw about an inch in length, and with which
the other four, though very long, must act in conjunction, as they have
no peculiar movements, no separate functions; they are a kind of hands
ten times larger than the feet, and four times longer than the whole
body of the animal; in a word, they are parts which have rather the
appearance of caprice and accident, than a regular production. This
membrane covers the arms, forms the wings, or hands, of the animal,
is united to the skin of the body, and, at the same time envelopes
not only its legs, but even its tail, which by this whimsical junction
becomes, as it were, one of its toes. To these incongruities, these
disproportions of the body and members, may be added the still more
striking deformities of the head. In some species the nose is hardly
visible; the eyes are sunk near the tip of the ear, and confounded with
the cheeks; in others the ears are as long as the body, or else the
face twisted into the form of a horse-shoe, and the nose covered with
a kind of crust. Many of these animals have four substances from their
heads, resembling ears, and of all of them the eyes are small, obscure,
and covered; their noses are ill-formed, and their mouths extend from
ear to ear; they shun society and the light, inhabit dark places, which
they quit only for nocturnal excursions, return before the break of
day, and in a manner glue themselves against the walls. Their motion in
the air is less a flight than an uncertain flutter, which they execute
by struggles and in a very awkward manner; they raise themselves from
the ground with difficulty, and never soar to a great height; their
flight being far from either rapid or direct, but is performed by hasty
vibrations in an oblique and winding direction; in their flight they,
however, seize gnats, moths, and other nocturnal insects. These they
swallow entire, and in their excrements we meet with the remains of
wings and other dry parts which they were unable to digest.
Having one day descended into the grottoes of Arcy to examine the
stalectites, I was surprised to find, upon a spot covered with
alabaster, and in a place so gloomy, a kind of earth so very different;
it consisted of blackish matter several feet in width and breadth, and
composed almost entirely of wings and legs of insects, as if immense
numbers had collected there and perished together. This heap, however,
was nothing more than the dung of bats, amassed, probably, from their
having made that their favourite residence for many years; for in
the whole extent of the grottoes, which is more than the eighth of a
league, I saw no other similar mass; I therefore concluded that they
had fixed upon this spot, because a small gloomy light reached it from
the top, and that they had not proceeded further, lest they should have
been too much enveloped in obscurity.
Bats have nothing in common with birds, except the faculty of flying,
and therefore must be classed among quadrupeds; but as the ability
to fly implies a great degree of force in the superior and anterior
parts of the body, the pectoral muscles of the bat are more strong
and fleshy than those of any other quadruped, a circumstance in which
they have some resemblance to birds; in every other respect their
conformation both external and internal is different. The lungs, heart,
organs of generation, and all other viscera, except the prominent
sexual distinction, which is similar to that of a man or a monkey, are
the same as in other quadrupeds; like them also they are viviparous,
and have teeth and nipples. It has been affirmed that they bring forth
only two at a time, that they suckle their young, and even carry them
when they fly. It is in summer they couple and bring forth, for during
winter they are in a state of torpor; some cover themselves with their
wings as with a cloak, and suspend themselves by their hind legs in
subterraneous caverns; others cling to walls, or conceal themselves in
holes. When they retire they do it in numbers, and collect together
to defend each other from the cold; and they pass the whole winter,
from the end of autumn to the spring, without either food or motion.
They can support hunger better than cold; and though they can subsist
many days without food, they are nevertheless carnivorous; for when
opportunity serves, they will devour meat of all kinds, whether raw or
roasted, fresh or corrupted.
There were but two species of bats described as natives of our
climate, until M. Daubenton discovered five others equally common
and abundant, which renders it astonishing they should have remained
so long unnoticed. The whole of them are widely different, and never
dwell together. The first is the common bat, (_fig. 86._) which we have
already described. The next is the long-eared, (_fig. 84._) which is
perhaps more numerous than the common bat; its body is more diminutive,
its wings are shorter, its snout smaller and more pointed, and its
ears large beyond all proportion. The third species, which I call the
noctule, from the Italian word _noctula_, was not known, though very
common in France, and more frequently met with than the two preceding.
It is found under the roofs of houses, castles, and churches, and in
hollow trees; it is almost as large as the common bat, its ears are
broad and short, its hair of a reddish cast, and its voice sharp and
piercing. The fourth is distinguished, by the name of the _serotine_;
it is smaller than the common bat or the noctule, and nearly the size
of the long-eared; its ears, however, are sharp, and pointed, its
wings are black, and its body of a deep brown. The fifth I call the
pipistrelles, (_fig. 85._) from the Italian word _pipistrello_, which
signifies also a bat. Of all the bats this is the smallest and least
ugly, though the upper lip is swelled, its eyes small and hollow, and
its forehead covered with hair. The sixth is named the barbastelle
(_fig. 89._) from _barbestello_ another Italian word, signifying a bat.
This is nearly of the same size as the long-eared; its ears are as
broad but not so long. The name _barbastelle_ is the more applicable
to it, as it seems to have whiskers, which nevertheless are only
protuberances over the lips; its snout is short, nose flat, and its
eyes close to its ears. The seventh, and last, is distinguished as the
horse-shoe bat, (_fig. 88._). The face of this animal is singularly
deformed, of which the most apparent feature is a membrane in the form
of an horse-shoe round the nose and upper lip; this species is very
common in France, among the walls and in the vaults of old ruinous
castles, and of which there are large and small, but in form, and in
every other particular, they are similar. As I have not met with any of
the intermediate sizes, I cannot determine whether this difference is
produced by age, or a permanent variety in the same species.