CLASSIFICATION AND "HABITS. Bats are classi fied as an order, divisible into two sections, Megacheiroptera and Microeheiroptera.
Mcgacheiroptera.—These are lowest in rank, and include the large-sized fruit-eating species, mainly of the Oriental tropics. The lowest in rank are the fox-bats or 'flying-foxes' of the family Pteropodid,r. They are described under the titles Fox-BAT and Fnurr-BAT.
Microcheiroptrre.—In this division are found all other hats—the ordinary bats of temperate climates, as well as many tropical ones—which agree in being of small size, in living, as a rule, upon insects to which their dentition is suited, and in having more or less of a tail enveloped in an interfemo•al membrane. The first family is that of the Horseshoe Bats (Ithinolophidte), whose snouts bear such appendages as have been described, differing according to species. They are scattered throughout Southern Asia, where many species are well known, and a few extena into Europe and the British Isles. Most of them are of the ordinary brown color, but an Austra lian species is bright orange in the male and yellow in the female. A family having still more prominent growths about the nose and ears is that of the Leaf-nosed Bats proper (Nycteridre). Two genera inhabit Eastern Asia, represented by the lyre-bat (lleyaderme lyre), whose vast ears are joined together above the head, and which sometimes attacks and kills other bats and small mannnals, sucking their blood. In the next family, Vesperlilionithr, are grouped the 'true,' or familiar. small. naked-faced bats of all coun tries. They feed almost exclusively on insects, which they capture in flight, mid which their sharp and numerous teeth are fitted to hold and crush : they spend the hours of daylight in eaves, ruins. hollow trees, garrets, and similtar hiding-places, sometimes resorting to caverns in vast numbers. and so continuously that thick deposits of valuable guano are formed, as is the ease in certain parts of Texas. At dusk they sally forth, alone, or in pairs, and hunt the air for their minute prey. In cold climates they spend the winter hanging in some retreat (each species exercising a preference in this matter) in a semi-torpid state, and occasionally appear during warm spells. One, or sometimes two, young are born in the spring, and carried about clinging to the mother's breast, where two nip ples yield milk. The commonest European bats, in regard to which much folk-lore and no little of foolish superstition are related and still be lieved among the ignorant. are the long-eared
(Ph:colas auritas), the barbastelle (Barbastcllus contatunis), the pipistrel or tlittermouse ( Fes wage pipistrellas), abundant all over Europe and Central Asia, and the serotine ( sr-roan:is), which is almost world-wide in its distribution. Here belong also all the common North American bats, of which the most fre quently seen in the northern United States are the little brown bat ( Vespertilio [or .Ilyolis] subulalus) and the red bat (Lasiaras borealis). All these have a long tail, extending a spacious triangular membrane, which is further sustained by two bones springing from the 'heels' of the hind-feet. and which serves a most useful pur pose in those dodgings through the air so char acteristic of the bat's flight.
The remainder of the bats form the Emnal lonurine section of the group. The typical fam ily, Emballonuridle, consists of small tropical and subtropical species of both hemispheres, which have a naked muzzle, in which the nostrils project beyond the lower lip, and a tail some times longer than the interfemoral membrane. Many are South American. One section C111 braces the molossine, or mastiff-bats, of which a sooty brown species dwells in southern Cali fornia. They are noted for the thickness and freedom of the hind-limbs and tail. Another family, the Phyllostomatithe, is confined to Cen tral and South America. where it represents the nose-leafed bats of the Old World. having many appendages about the nostrils. Many of them eat fruit or suck the blood of animals as well as feed upon insects, and one, called Yampyras spectrum, is the largest and most repulsive of American bats; it is a fruit-eater. (See Colored plate of ManmaLta, and plate of BATS.) lkre, however, are classed the trite vampires of the genus Desmodus. See VAMPIRE.
Thamooaarnr. For the bats of the Old World, consult the standard works, and Dobson. Oita Lague of the Bats in. the British Museum. (London, 1878) ; for North American species. Merriam, Transactions, Linnean ,Society of New York. Vol. 1. (New York, 1S82) ; Allen. Bats of North America, Bulletin No. 43, U. S. National Museum (Washington, 1893) ; and the writings of Waterton, Gosse, Bates, Belt, Wallace. Pney, and Hudson for bats of tropical America. For the East Indian fruit-bats, consult: Wallace, Malay Archipelago (New York), and Blanford, Fauna of British India: Mammals (London, 18SS-91).
See FRUIT-BAT; HAMMERHEAD BAT; HARPY BAT ; LYRE-BAT.