priety and consistency in their being placed among birds unclean and forbidden. God cannot allow that to be food for his people which the pagans held in honor. The images of these birds would, at a future time, flourish as emblems upon the banners of those nations which should seek to waste and destroy them. In front of the ruthless Babylonian army it should be borne as the standard. around which these heathen should rally against Zion, and at the elevation of which they should cry, inspired with new courage and hope,

"Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof ?"

The image of those birds should also adorn the banners of the Romans, under whose power of irresistible conquest Judaism, as a civil constitution, should forever pass away. It should frown down upon them while, with sad remembrances of their former independence and glory, they should go in deep humiliation as the vanquished, to pay their tribute to Cæsar. Yea, more, the power that wasted them, as if to insult the fallen, even caused the image of this bird to be placed over the gate which led to the temple! Should they not, therefore, be prepared to hold in proper detestation those birds which should be so extensively associated with their destruction as a nation, and which should become the sad emblem of their humiliation ?

In Deuteronomy, Moses places immediately after the osprey, as unclean, a bird which is in Hebrew called DAJA, and is translated in English, Glede. Of this bird little is known. Bochart thinks the black vulture is intended, as the root of the word signifies blackness, or darkness of color. He also informs us that the Latin writers speak of an "ater vulture," black vulture, and sometimes called this species absolute "nigras aves," black birds. This bird has not yet been satisfactorily designated by the learned, on account of the scantiness of the data which they have to work upon. It may be a species of eagle, or a species of vulture, as it is placed by Moses between these families.

Though it would be pleasant to have a full description of the appearance and habits of these birds, for the mere satisfaction of knowing, yet such knowledge is not necessary, further than we have it for the right interpretation of any passages of Scripture in which reference is made to them. What we have found to record, even though it be scanty, is interesting to us, because it is associated with Birds of the Bible:

The smallest fragment given to us by friends
Is doubly dear because of those who gave:

Not on its greatness does its worth depend;
What love has given we delight to save.

E'en thus what God, the best of friends, in love imparts,
We treasure in our minds, and cherish in our hearts."

NO. XXV.-THE BAT.

"What shall I call thee-bird, or beast, or neither?'
'Just what you will-I'm rather both than either;
Much like the season when I whirl my flight,
The dusk of evening-neither day nor night.'"

"Miræ sane conformationis est animal; bipes,
quadrupes, ambulans non pedibus, volans non
pennis; videns, sine luce, in luce cæcus; extra
lucem luce utitur, in luce luce caret; avis cum
dentibus, sine rostro, cum mammis, cum lacte,
pullos etiam inter volandum gerens."

IT has been somewhat difficult for us to decide whether we ought to give place in our book to this "bird, or beast, or neither.' Naturalists have long since placed it among quadrupeds; and yet, in spite of science, it will be in the air among birds; and the people, and the poets, and even the scientific, when they forget the books, will call it a bird. Pliny, Gessner, and Aldrovandus will have it a bird; but many others, equally learned, say no. We cannot consent to be arbiter in these disputes of the scientific; in our science it is a quadruped-but in all our associations it is a

bird.

Moses places the bat among fowls. He mentions last in his list of prohibited birds "the bat;" and he adds: "All fowls that creep, going upon all fours, shall be an abomination unto you." In Deuteronomy, Moses the lawgiver seems to recognize its somewhat equivocal character; and hence, placing it at the end of his list of unclean animals, both bird and beast, he seems to make it the head of a class which seems "rather both than either." "The bat, and every creeping thing that flieth is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten." It has been well said: "It is too much a bird to be properly a mouse, and too much a mouse to be properly a bird."

sop has built a very instructive fable upon the ambiguous nature of the bat. We most earnestly commend it to a certain class of human creatures who are this, or that, or neither, and rather both than either, just as their own interest makes it convenient or profitable. How could the portrait of these human bats be better drawn than is done in this fable?

"Once upon a time there was a fierce war waged between the Birds and the Beasts. For a long while the issue of the battle was uncertain, and the bat, taking advantage of his ambiguous nature, kept aloof and remained neutral. At length when the beasts seemed to prevail, the bat joined their forces, and appeared active in the fight; but a rally being made by the birds, which proved successful, he was found at the end of the day among the ranks of the winning party. A peace being speedily concluded, the bat's conduct was condemned alike by both parties, and being acknowledged by neither, and so excluded from the terms of the

truce, he was obliged to skulk off as best he could, and has ever since lived in holes and corners, never daring to show his face except in the duskiness of twilight."

Indeed, it is no wonder that men are puzzled to classify this wonderfully odd and irregular little monster. It seems as if nature in it exists without rules; it seems to be a kind of harmony of discords-a complete unity in diversity. It exists in a great number of genera, species, and varieties. Some as small as a common mouse, and some as large as a pullet or squirrel. Our common bat is not above two and a half inches long, while the great Madagascar bat is near four feet broad when the wings are extended, and a foot long from the tip of the nose to the extremity. Some of the bats of Africa have long tails like mice. Some have four ears, others two. One kind has a horn growing from its nose, like a rhinoceros. In some species the nose is scarcely visible, the eyes are sunk near the tips of the ear, and are confounded with the cheeks. Some again have ears as long as their body, the face is twisted into the shape of a horse-shoe, and the nose covered with some kind of crust. The fore-feet are, properly speaking, neither feet nor wings, though they are used for walking and flying. The wings are a kind of winged paws; not covered with either feathers or hair, but a kind of bare membrane fastened on small extended bones, like the sails of a ship to the masts. As to color, some are white, some black, some reddish like a fox, some ashcolored, and some sallow.

No wonder, then, that this curious creature, so much like a bird, and so much like a beast, should be regarded as a kind of outlaw in the animal economy, originating from fowl and beast, and rightly neither:

"Lest the foul Batt, of byrd and beast first bredde,
Flitting with littel leathern sailes dispredde."

Bats are as singular in their habits as they are in their form. They only go forth in the twilight, and then only on pleasant summer evenings. From this circumstance they are named, in Hebrew, OTHELAPH, "the flier in duskiness." At such times they dart about with an awkward, laborious, and irregular flight after flies, and various kinds of insects, upon which they feed. This is perhaps the only way in which they render themselves useful to man, ridding the air of a superabundance of troublesome insects: "For he snaps them up, that monster fierce, Let loose from his darksome den."

During the day they live retired in the lofts of barns or churches, in hollow thick-leaved trees, in caves, in the chinks of ruined buildings, and similar dark and gloomy places. Here they do not sit like birds, or creep into holes like mice, but they hang themselves up by their hinder claws. A singular taste! But why

should they not do differently from all other birds and beasts? They have their reason, and a very good one, for choosing this position. They find it very difficult to rise into the air from a flat surface; for this reason they suspend themselves in this way, and they take wing with perfect ease, by relinquishing their hold. Like a prudent seaman, they anchor in a way which will enable them to set sail again.

In the winter they return to caverns, vaults, holes in ruins, and in old deserted buildings. Here they exist in a torpid state, clinging together, and hanging in large bunches to keep themselves

warm:

"Silent bats in drowsy clusters cling."

"We here observe the admirable arrangement of the great Author of Nature, who has rendered it necessary that these animals should be torpid during all the time that their appropriate food is not to be obtained. In warm climates, where a constant succession of insects occurs, the same species of bat which, in a cold region, would become torpid, continue in activity throughout the year.

Bats are hateful creatures, not only in their appearance, but also from the fact that they are often covered with cimex lectularius, or the common bed-bug. The recollection of this fact may serve to explain to ladies the wonder occasioned by the discovery of these unwelcome visitors in new houses; and, what is still more important, it may prevent uncharitable suspicions from resting upon occasional visitors. Moreover, in such cases, it is better all around, where this kind of mischief is done, to let the bat bear it. The windows, long closed, are opened the very evening when friends arrive, and in and out goes the "nasty thing," shouldering its own sins upon the innocent!

The poets have not failed to find, in this queer beast-fowl, the elements of poetry-witty, humorous, and moral. We have the pleasure of introducing here a short poem on this little "monster fierce," by Prof. WILLIAM M. NEVIN, Esq., which is not only admirably descriptive of its nature and habits, but is also in style as fine a specimen of Saxon simplicity as can anywhere be found.

THE BAT.

The bat from his cavern, when nothing stirred,
When all around no sound was heard

Of frolicsome beast or twittering bird,

Thought it time he should take his flight;
So down from its roof, to which he did cling,
He dropped, and spreading each leathern wing,
Away he flitted, the fleetest thing

To be seen abroad that night.

In the woods, to hear the owl complain
Or the whippowil repeat his strain,
Not long he thought it best to remain,
But, urged by a livelier whim,

He left the trees with their birds at rest,
The bosky dell in its moonlight blest,
And the meadow fain with the dew to be prest;
These were all too dull for him.

On the shaded green the boys were out,
And above their heads he flirted about;
When they greeted him all with a cheer and shout,
And called him their sports to share;

And a charm, to wheedle him down, they sung,
When quick he darted the fellows among,
And after him then their hats they flung,
But not a whit did he care.

He whipped away, in his fitful flight,
Through a casement into a parlor bright,
Where the young and gay were met that night,
And threw them into alarm;

For the maiden feared that the ugly thing,
As he flitted her by on his leathern wing,
Himself would into her tresses fling,

And do her a deal of harm.

Ah, now the trifler will sure be caught!
The knights are up, with valorous thought
To strike him down, and he has forgot

Where it was that he first came in.
They are after him hard with brush and cane;
His nights are numbered! he must be slain!
But he darted-whither? They watch in vain;
He is off, no more to be seen!

He is sporting without, in a safer place,
He is giving the moths and the millers a chase;
For he feels himself in a hungry case,
And these his affections crave;

So, whenever a lusty one he sees,
He snaps him up with the quickest ease,
And having feasted himself on these,

He retires again to his cave.

Bats both hear and see well; that is, they see well, like owls, in the twilight; but their chief fort lies in the sense of touch. In this they are said to exceed in acuteness all other creatures. "The reaction of the air against the membranes is sufficient to warn them of any obstacle, however slight, and enables them to turn, lower themselves, or draw in their wings, so as to clear the body without the least appearance of effort.

We have already remarked, that bats love old dilapidated houses and forsaken ruins, where darkness, loneliness, and desolation reign. There is a beautiful allusion to this in Isaiah. The prophet, painting in glowing and rapturous language the glory of the latter days, when all superstition and idolatry shall wane and vanish before the light of the Lord, says:

"In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver
And his idols of gold,

Which they made each one for himself to worship,
To the moles and to the bats."