Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — Nocturnal Creatures. [ARTICLE]

Nocturnal Creatures.

Most curious in origin of all nocturnal insect hunters are the leathery winged bats, whioh ma’y be regarded, practically speaking, ns very tiny monkeys, highly specialized for tne task of catching nocturnal flies and midges. Few people know how nearly they are related to us. They belong to the self-same division of the higher mammals as man and the apes; their skeleton answers to ours, bone for bone and joint for joint, in an ordinary manner; only the unessential fact that they have very long fingers with a web between ns an organ of flight prevents us from instantly and instinctively recognizing them as remote cousins, once removed from the gorilla. The female bat in particular is absurdly human. Most of them feed off insects alone; bul a few, like the famous vampire bats oi South America, take a mean advantage of sleeping animals, and suck their blood after the, fashion of mosquitoes, as they lie defenseless in the forest or on the open pampas. Others, like the flying foxes of the Malay archipelaga, make i frugal meal off fruits and vegetables; but even these are persistent night fliers! They hang head downwards from the boughs of trees during the hot tropical daytime, but sally forth at night, with Milton’s sons of Belial, to rob the banana patches and invade the plantain grounds of the industrious native. The bat is a lemur, compelled by dire necessity to become a flying night bir^d. —[CornhiU Magazine.