But, although these shells might easily defend | they are pursued with unceasing industry; and, this animal from a feeble enemy, yet they could although they burrow very deep in the earth, make but a slight resistance against a more pow- there have been many expedients used to force erful antagonist; nature, therefore, has given them out. The hunters sometimes contrive to the armadillo the same method of protecting it- fill the hole with smoke, which is often successself with the hedgehog or the pangolin. The in- ful; they at other times force it by pouring in stant it perceives itself attacked, it withdraws water. They also bring up a small kind of dogs its head under its shells, and lets nothing be seen to the chase that quickly overtake them, if at but the tip of the nose; if the danger increases, any distance from their burrow, and oblige them the animal's precautions increase in proportion; to roll themselves up in a ball, in which figure it then tucks up its feet under its belly, unites the hunters carry them home. If, however, the its two extremities together, while the tail seems armadillo be near a precipice, it often escapes as a band to strengthen the connexion; and it by rolling itself up, and then tumbling down thus becomes like a ball, a little flattish on each from rock to rock, without the least danger or side. In this position it continues obstinately inconvenience. They are sometimes taken in fixed, while the danger is near, and often long snares laid for them by the sides of rivers and after it is over. In this situation it is tossed low moist places, which they particularly freabout at the pleasure of every other quadruped, quent; and this method, in general, succeeds and very little resembling a creature endowed better than any of the former, as their burrows with life and motion. Whenever the Indians are very deep, and they seldom stir out except in take it, which is in this form, by laying it close the night. At no time are they found at any to the fire, they soon oblige the poor animal to great distance from their retreats, so that it reunfold itself, and to face a milder death to escape quires some patience and skill to intercept their retreat. a more severe. There are scarcely any of these that do not root the ground like a hog, in search of such roots as make a principal part of their food. They live also upon melons and other succulent vegetables, and all will eat flesh when they can get it. They frequent water and watery places, where they feed upon worms, small fish, and water insects. It is pretended that there is a kind that they live peaceably and commodiously together, and are frequently found in the same hole. This, however, may be a friendship of necessity to the armadillo; the rattle-snake takes possession of its retreats, which neither are willing to quit, while each is incapable of injuring the other. As to the rest, these animals, though they all resemble each other in the general character of This animal is a native only of America, for they were utterly unknown before the discovery of that continent. It is an inoffensive harmless creature, unless it finds the way into a garden, where it does a great deal of mischief, by eating the melons, the potatoes, and other vegetables. Although a native of the warmest parts of America, yet it bears the cold of our climate without any inconvenience. We have often seen them | of friendship between them and the rattle-snake, shown among other wild beasts, which is a proof they are not difficult to be brought over. Their motion seems to be a swift walk, but they can neither run, leap, nor climb trees; so that, if found in an open place, they have no method of escaping from their pursuers. Their only resource in such an extremity is to make towards their hole as fast as they can; or, if this be impracticable, to make a new hole before the ene-being clothed with a shell, yet differ a good deal my arrives. For this they require but a very few moments' advantage; the mole itself does not burrow swifter than they can. For this purpose, they are furnished with claws extremely large, strong, and crooked, and usually four upon each foot. They are sometimes caught by the tail as they are making their way into the earth; but such is their resistance, and so difficult it is to draw them backward, that they leave their tail in the hand of their pursuer, and are very well contented to save their lives with its loss. The pursuers, sensible of this, never drag the tail with all their force, but hold it while another digs the ground about them; and thus these animals are taken alive. The instant the armadillo | perceives itself in the power of its enemies, it has but one last resource, to roll itself up, and thus patiently wait whatever tortures they think proper to inflict. The flesh of the smaller kinds is said to be delicate eating; so that we may suppose they receive no mercy. For this reason, in their size, and in the parts into which their shell is divided. The first of this kind, which has but three bands between the two large pieces that cover the back, is called the TATU APARA. I will not enter into an exact description of its figure, which, how well written soever, no imagination could exactly conceive; and the reader would be more fatigued to understand, than I to write it. The tail is shorter in this than any other kind, being not more than two inches long, while the shell, taking all the pieces together, is a foot long, and eight inches broad. The second is the TATOU of Ray, or the ENCOUBERT of Buffon: this is distinguished from the rest by six bands across the back; it is about the size of a pig of a month old, with a small long head and a very long tail. The third is the TATUETTE, furnished with eight bands, and not by a great deal so big as the former. Its tail is longer also, and its legs shorter in proportion. Its body from the nose to the insertion of the tail, is about ten inches suckles them; its mouth is furnished with teeth; its lungs are formed like those of quadrupeds; its intestines and its skeleton have a complete resemblance, and even are, in some measure, seen to resemble those of mankind.1 long, and the tail seven. The fourth is the PIG- | in the air. It brings forth its young alive; it HEADED ARMADILLO, with nine bands. This is much larger than the former, being about two feet long from the nose to the tail. The fifth is the KABASSOU, or CATAPHRACTUS, with twelve bands, and still bigger than the former, or any other of its kind. This is often found above three feet long; but is never eaten as the rest are. The sixth is the WEASEL-HEADED ARMADILLO, with eighteen bands, with a large piece before, and nothing but bands backward. This is above a foot long, and the tail five inches. Of all these, the kabassou and the encoubert are the largest ; the rest are of a much smaller kind. In the larger kinds, the shell is much more solid than in the others, and the flesh is much harder and unfit for the table. These are generally seen to reside in dry upland grounds, while the small species are always found in moist places, and in the neighbourhood of brooks and rivers. They all roll themselves into a ball; but those whose bands are fewest in number, are least capable of covering themselves up completely. The tatu apara, for instance, when rolled up, presents two great interstices between its bands, by which it is very easily vulnerable, even by the feeblest of quadrupeds. CHAP. IV. ANIMALS OF THE BAT KIND. The bat most common in England, is about the size of a mouse; or nearly two inches and a half long. The membranes that are usually called wings, are, properly speaking, an extension of the skin all around the body, except the head, which, when the animal flies, is kept stretched on every side by the four interior toes of the fore-feet, which are enormously long, and serve like masts that keep the canvass of a sail spread, and regulate its motions.2 The first toe is quite loose, and serves as a heel when the bat walks: or as a hook when it would adhere to any thing. The hind-feet are disengaged from the surrounding skin, and divided into five toes, somewhat resembling those of a mouse. The skin by which it flies is of a dusky colour. The body is covered with a short fur of a mouse colour, tinged with red. The eyes are very small; the ears like those of a mouse. This species of the bat is very common in England. It makes its first appearance early in summer, and begins its flight in the dusk of the evening. It principally frequents the sides of woods, glades, and shady walks; and is frequently observed to skim along the surface of pieces of water. It pursues gnats, moths, and nocturnal insects of every kind. It feeds upon these; but will not refuse meat wherever it can HAVING in the last chapter described a race of find it. Its flight is a laborious irregular moveanimals that unite the boundaries between quad-ment; and if it happens to be interrupted in its rupeds and insects, I come in this to a very dif- course, it cannot readily prepare for a second eleferent class, that serve to fill up the chasm be- vation; so that if it strikes against any object, tween quadrupeds and birds. Some naturalists, and falls to the ground, it is usually taken. It indeed, have found animals of the bat kind so appears only in the most pleasant evenings, when much partaking of the nature of both, that they its prey is generally abroad, and flies in pursuit have been at a loss in which rank to place them, with its mouth open. At other times it conand have doubted, in giving the history of the tinues in its retreat; the chink of a ruined bat, whether it was a beast or a bird they were building, or the hollow of a tree. Thus this little describing. These doubts, however, no longer animal, even in summer, sleeps the greater part exist; they are now universally made to take of its time, never venturing out by day-light, nor their place among quadrupeds, to which their in rainy weather; never hunting in quest of bringing forth their young alive, their hair, their prey, but for a small part of the night, and then teeth, as well as the rest of their habitudes and returning to its hole. But its short life is still conformation, evidently entitle them. Pliny, more abridged by continuing in a torpid state Gesner, and Aldrovandus, who placed them among during the winter. At the approach of the cold birds, did not consider that they wanted every season, the bat prepares for its state of lifeless character of that order of animals, except the inactivity, and seems rather to choose a place power of flying. Indeed, when this animal is where it may continue safe from interruption, seen with an awkward and struggling motion than where it may be warmly or conveniently supporting itself in the air at the dusk of the lodged. For this reason it is usually seen hangevening, it presents in some measure the appear- ing by its hooked claws to the roofs of caves, ance of a bird; but naturalists, whose business it is to examine it more closely, to watch its habitudes, and inspect into its formation, are inexcusable for concurring in the mistake. The bat in scarcely any particular resembles the bird, except in its power of sustaining itself 1 Penis propendens. 2 British Zoology. 3 Mr. White, in his Natural History of Selborne, giving an account of a tame bat, says, "I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion that bats, when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease from the floor."-ED. the little body into the air in this manner, by an unceasing percussion, much swifter than that of birds, the animal continues, and directs its flight; however, the great labour required in flying, soon fatigues it; for, unlike birds, which continue for days together upon the wing, the bat is tired in less than an hour, and then returns to its hole, satisfied with its supply, to enjoy the darkness of its retreat. regardless of the eternal damps that surround | and this, which is extremely thin, serves to lift it. The bat seems the only animal that will venture to remain in these frightful subterranean abodes, where it continues in a torpid state, unaffected by every change of the weather. Such of this kind as are not provident enough to procure themselves a deep retreat, where the cold and heat seldom vary, are sometimes exposed to great inconveniences, for the weather often becomes so mild in the midst of winter, as to warm them prematurely into life, and to allure them from their holes in quest of food, when nature has not provided a supply. These, therefore, have seldom strength to return; but having exhausted themselves in a vain pursuit after insects which are not to be found, are destroyed by the owl, or any other animal that follows such petty prey. The bat couples and brings forth in summer, generally from two to five at a time: of this I am certain, that I have found five young ones in a hole together; but whether they were the issue of one parent, I cannot tell. The female has but two nipples, and those forward on the breast as in the human kind. This was a sufficient motive for Linnæus to give it the title of a primus, to rank it in the same order with mankind, and to push this contemptible animal among the chiefs of the creation. Such arbitrary associations produce rather ridicule than instruction, and render even method contemptible; however, we are to forgive too strong an attachment to system in this able naturalist, since his application to the particular history of the animal counterbalances the defect.+ From Linnæus we learn, that the female makes no nest for her young, as most birds and quadrupeds are known to do. She is barely content with the first hole she meets, where sticking herself by her hooks against the sides of her apartment, she permits her young to hang at the nipple, and in this manner to continue for the first or second day. When, after some time, the dam begins to grow hungry, and finds a necessity of stirring abroad, she takes her little ones and sticks them to the wall, in the manner she before hung herself; there they immoveably cling and patiently wait till her return. Thus far this animal seems closely allied to the quadruped race. Its similitude to that of birds is less striking. As nature has furnished birds with extremely strong pectoral muscles to move the wings, and direct their flight, so has it also furnished this animal. As birds also have their legs weak, and unfit for the purposes of motion, the bat has its legs fashioned in the same manner, and is never seen to walk, or, more properly speaking, to push itself forward with its hind-legs, but in cases of extreme necessity. The toes of the fore-legs, or, if we may use the expression, its extremely long fingers, extend the web like a membrane that lies between them; Fauna Suecica, p. 8. If we consider the bat as it is seen in our own country, we shall find it a harmless inoffensive creature. It is true that it now and then steals into a larder, and, like a mouse, commits its petty thefts upon the fattest parts of the bacon. But this happens seldom; the general tenor of its industry is employed in pursuing insects that are much more noxious to us than itself can possibly be: while its evening flight, and its unsteady wabbling motion, amuse the imagination, and add one figure more to the pleasing group of animated nature. The varieties of this animal, especially in our country, are but few; and the differences scarcely worth enumeration. Naturalists mention the Long-eared Bat, much less than that generally seen, and with much longer ears; the Horse-shoe Bat, with an odd protuberance round its upper lip, somewhat in the form of a horse-shoe; the Rhinoceros Bat, with a horn growing from the nose, somewhat similar to that animal from whence it has the name. These, with several others, whose varieties are too numerous, and differences too minute for a detail, are all inoffensive, minute, and contemptible; incapable, from their size, of injuring mankind, and not sufficiently numerous much to incommode him. But there is a larger race of bats, found in the East and West Indies, that are truly formidable; each of these is singly a dangerous enemy, but when they unite in flocks they then become dreadful. Were the inhabitants of the African coasts," says Des Marchais, to eat animals of the bat kind, as they do in the East Indies, they would never want a supply of provisions. They are there in such numbers, that, when they fly, they obscure the setting sun. In the morning, at peep of day, they are seen sticking upon the tops of the trees, and clinging to each other, like bees when they swarm, or like large clusters of cocoa. The Europeans often amuse themselves with shooting among this huge mass of living creatures, and observing their embarrassment when wounded. They sometimes enter the houses, and the negroes are expert at killing them; but although these people seem for ever hungry, yet they regard the bat with horror, and will not eat it though ready to starve. Of foreign bats, the largest we have any certain accounts of, is the Rousette, or the Great Bat of Madagascar. This formidable creature is near 5 Des Marchais, vol. ii. p. 208. ated. I have been assured," continues he, "by persons of the strictest veracity, that such an accident has happened to them; and that had they not providentially awaked, their sleep would have been their passage into eternity; having lost so large a quantity of blood as hardly to find strength to bind up the orifice. The reason why the puncture is not felt, is, besides the great precaution with which it is made, the gentle refreshing agitation of the bat's wings, which contribute to increase sleep, and soften the pain." four feet broad, when the wings are extended; | tinuing to exhaust the body until they are satiand a foot long, from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail. It resembles our bat in the form of its wings, in its manner of flying, and in its internal conformation. It differs from it in its enormous size; in its colour, which is red, like that of a fox; in its head and nose also, which resemble those of that animal, and which have induced some to call it the flying fox; it differs also in the number of its teeth; and in having a claw on the fore-foot, which is wanting in ours. This formidable creature is found only in the ancient continent; particularly in Madagascar, along the coasts of Africa and Malabar, where it is usually seen about the size of a large hen. When they repose, they stick themselves to the tops of the tallest trees, and hang with their heads downward. But when they are in motion, nothing can be more formidable; they are seen in clouds, darkening the air, as well by day as by night, destroying the ripe fruits of the country, and sometimes settling upon animals, and man himself; they devour, indiscriminately, fruits, flesh, and insects, and drink the juice of the palm-tree; they are heard at night in the forests at more than two miles distance, with a horrible din, but at the approach of day they usually begin to retire: nothing is safe from their depredations; they destroy fowls and domestic animals unless preserved with the utmost care, and often fasten upon the inhabitants themselves, attack them in the face, and inflict very terrible wounds. In short, as some have already observed, the ancients seem to have taken their ideas of harpies from these fierce and voracious creatures, as they both concur in many parts of the description, being equally deformed, greedy, uncleanly, and cruel. An animal not so formidable, but still more mischievous than these, is the American vampyre. This is less than the former, but more deformed, and still more numerous. It is furnished with a horn like the rhinoceros bat; and its ears are extremely long. The other kinds generally resort to the forest, and the most deserted places; but these come into towns and cities, and, after sunset, when they begin to fly, cover the streets like a canopy. They are the common pest both of men and animals; they effectually destroy the one, and often distress the other. 66 They are," says Ulloa, "the most expert bloodletters in the world. The inhabitants of those warm latitudes being obliged, by the excessive heats, to leave open the doors and windows of the chambers where they sleep, the vampyres enter, and if they find any part of the body exposed, they never fail to fasten upon it. There they continue to suck the blood; and it often happens that the person dies under the operation. They insinuate their tooth into a vein, with all the art of the most experienced surgeon, con 6 Ulloa, vol. i. p. 58. The purport of this account has been confirmed by various other travellers; who all agree that this bat is possessed of a faculty of drawing the blood from persons sleeping; and thus often destroying them before they awake. But still a very strong difficulty remains to be accounted for; the manner in which they inflict the wound Ulloa, as has been seen, supposes that it is done by a single tooth; but this we know to be impossible, since the animal cannot infix one tooth without all the rest accompanying its motions; the teeth of the bat kind being pretty even, and the mouth but small. Mr. Buffon, therefore supposes the wound to be inflicted by the tongue; which, however, appears to me too large to inflict an unpainful wound; and even less qualified for that purpose than the teeth. Nor can the tongue, as Mr. Buffon seems to suppose, serve for the purposes of suction, since for this it must be hollow, like a syringe, which it is not found to be. I should therefore suppose, that the animal is endowed with a strong power of suction; and that, without inflicting any wound whatsoever, by continuing to draw, it enlarges the pores of the skin in such a manner, that the blood at length passes, and that more freely the longer the operation is continued; so that, at last, when the bat goes off, the blood continues to flow. In confirmation of this opinion we are told, that where beasts have a thick skin, this animal cannot injure them; whereas, in horses, mules, and asses, they are very liable to be thus destroyed. As to the rest, these animals are considered as one of the great pests of South America; and often prevent the peopling of many parts of that continent: having destroyed at Barja, and several other places, such cattle as were brought there by the missionaries, in order to form a settlement. CHAP. V. AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. THE gradations of nature, from one class of beings to another, are made by imperceptible deviations. As we saw in the foregoing chapters, 7 A portion of the tongue has now been discovered to be exactly constituted as an organ of suction, which confirms the conjecture of Buffon.-ED. As in opposite armies the two bodies are distinct and separated from each other, while yet between them are various troops that plunder on both sides, and are friends to neither; so between terrestrial and aquatic animals there are tribes that can scarcely be referred to any rank, but lead an amphibious life between them. Some times in water, sometimes on land, they seem fitted for each element, and yet completely adapted to neither. Wanting the agility of quadrupeds upon land, and the perseverance of fishes in the deep, the variety of their powers only seems to diminish their force; and, though possessed of two different methods of living, they are more inconveniently provided than such as have but one. quadrupeds almost degraded into the insect tribe, | membranes between the toes to assist it in swimor mounted among the inhabitants of the air, we ming. From this peculiar make of its feet, are at present to observe their approach to fishes, which are very short, it swims even faster than to trace the degrees by which they become more it runs, and can overtake fishes in their own unlike terrestrial animals, till the similitude of element. The colour of this animal is brown; the fish prevails over that of the quadruped. and is somewhat of the shape of an overgrown weasel, being long, slender, and soft-skinned. However, if we examine its figure in detail, we shall find it unlike any other animal hitherto described, and of such a shape as words can but weakly convey. Its usual length is about two feet from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail; the head and nose are broad and flat; the mouth bears some similitude to that of a fish; the neck is short, and equal in thickness to the head; the body long; the tail broad at the insertion, but tapering off to a point at the end; the eyes are very small, and placed nearer the nose than usual in quadrupeds. The legs are very short, but remarkably strong, broad, and muscular. The joints are articulated so loosely, that the animal is capable of turning them quite back, and bringing them on a line with the body, so as to perform the office of fins. Each foot is furnished with five toes, connected by strong broad webs like those of water-fowl. Thus nature, in every part, has had attention to the life of an animal whose food is fish, and whose haunts must necessarily be about water. All quadrupeds of this kind, though covered with hair in the usual manner, are furnished with membranes between the toes, which assist their motion in the water. Their paws are broad, and their legs short, by which they are more completely fitted for swimming; for, taking short strokes at a time, they make them oftener and with greater rapidity. Some, however, of these animals are more adapted to live in the water than others; but, as their power increases to live in the deep, their unfitness for living upon land increases in the same proportion. Some, like the otter, resemble quadrupeds in every thing except in being in some measure web-footed; others depart still further, in being, like the beaver, not only web-footed, but have the tail covered with scales, like those of a fish. Others depart yet farther, as the seal and the morse, by having the hind feet stuck to the body like fins; and others, as the lamentin, almost entirely resemble fishes, by having no hind feet whatsoever. Such are the gradations of the amphibious tribe. They all, however, get their living in the water, either by habit or conformation; they all continue a long time under water; they all consider that element as their proper abode; whenever pressed by danger, they fly to the water for security; and, when upon land, appear watchful, timorous, and unwieldy. THE OTTER.8 In the first step of the progression from land to amphibious animals, we find the Otter, resembling those of the terrestrial kind in shape, hair, and internal conformation; resembling the aquatic tribes in its manner of living, and in having 8 The otter differs in no respect from the weasel kind, except in having the feet webbed, and in living almost constantly in the water, from whence they chiefly derive their food, which is fish.-ED. This voracious animal is never found but at the sides of lakes and rivers, but particularly the former, for it is seldom fond of fishing in a running stream, for the current of the water having more power upon it than the fishes it pursues, if it hunts against the stream, it swims too slow; and if with the stream, it overshoots its prey. However, when in rivers, it is always observed to swim against the stream, and to meet the fishes it preys upon, rather than to pursue them. In lakes it destroys much more than it devours, and is often seen to spoil a pond in the space of a few nights. But the damage they do by destroying fish is not so great as their tearing in pieces the nets of the fishers, which they infallibly do whenever they happen to be entangled. The instant they find themselves caught, they go to work with their teeth, and in a few minutes destroy nets of a very considerable value. The otter has two different methods of fishing; the one by catching its prey from the bottom upward, the other by pursuing it into some little creek, and seizing it there. In the former case, as this animal has longer lungs than most other quadrupeds, upon taking in a quantity of air, it can remain for some minutes at the bottom; and whatever fish passes over at that time is certainly taken; for as the eyes of fish are placed so as not to see under them, the otter attacks them off their guard from below; and seizing them at once by the belly, drags them on shore, where it often leaves them untouched, to continue the pursuit for hours together. The other method is chiefly practised in lakes and ponds, where there |
