Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1893 — Nocturnal Creatures. [ARTICLE]

Nocturnal Creatures.

Most curious in origin of all nocturnal insect hunters are the leatherwinged bats, which may be regai ded, practically speaking, as very tiny monkeys, highly specialized for the 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 as 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; but a few, like the fa-

mous vampire bats of 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 archipelago, make a frugal meal off fruits and vegetables; but even these are persistent night fliers. They hang head downward frcan the boughs of trees during the hot tropichl daytime, but sally forth at night, with Milton’s sons of Belial, to rob the banana patches and invade the plaintain grounds of the industrious native. The bat is a lemur, compelled by dire necessity to become a flying night bird. — Cornhill Magazine.