Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-01-26
TWO QUEER CREATURES.
Habits Ond PeculIArItIes Of the Bat ana
che Whale.


tho Whale.
Only one species Of featherless ami
NAL that can fly exists in all the world,
and IL Is one that you probably have
often seen. Properly speaking it has no
wings, nevertheless its flying appur-
tenanoo is more nearly perfect than
that OF any bird. Titles with wonder
full rapidity, darts about with such
quickness that it Is difficult for the eye
to follow 1t, and its sense of touch and
smell are something marvellous.
In watching its rapid and eccentric
flight in the twilight you have, no doubt,
thought that this strange animal is bird.
But its bird-like appearance ends with
its ability to fly. Its young arc born and
nurtured just as arc puppies and kittens.
This strange flying animal is the bat,
says writer in the Philadelphia Times.
In one of Esop's fables it is related that
the beasts and tho birds once engaged
in battle, and the bat lowered above,
changing from one side to the other, as
tho chances Of victory changed. For
this treachery the bat was doomed to
tho queer life he now leads that Of an
apparent bird, but real mammalian ami
NAL.
The structure d the bat is very pecul-
lar An eminent naturalist says: IF
the fingers of EIan were to be drawn
out like wire to about four feet in
length. thin membrane to extend from
finger to finger, and another membrane
20 fall from the little finger to the
ankles, lie would make a very tolerable
bat" Yes. the whole skeleton of the
bat is very similar to that of man. with
the exception Of the great elongation
Of what we may call tho arms and
hands.
When you see the bat darling aboutin
the evening he is taking his supper. lie
lives as the swallow does, on insects in
The air. and, although his sight is very
poor. his touch and smell are so sensi-
tive that he has no difficulty in catch
ing his prey. even when flying so very
fast.
When cold weather comes on the bat
ceases To fly about in search of food. He
doesn't need to. lie seeks a we'll shell
Icrcd nook, whore he Is not likely to be
disturbed. and quietly takes nap till
next spring!
Somewhat analogous to the bat, the
mammalian Of the air, is the whale, the
mammalian of the sea. The whale Is no
more IL fish than the bat is a bird. Its
young are born like the kittens ard tho
puppies. but only one at a time. The
young whale takes it's nourishment at
its mothers breast, just as tho human
baby does, and it is just as carefully
watched and guarded by its parents.
Although whales grow to enormous
lie. sometimes eighty and even ninety
feet long, the throat is 80 small that
the animal couldn't swallow a bite as
large as Il tea biscuit. This applies to
the common whale; the spermaccti has
mouth large enough to swallow man.
The whalebone that the dress-makers
and others find SO useful is what may
he called the jaw of the common whale.
1t has no teeth, and It, lives ON ANNA
culcS-little animals-that float in great
numbers on tho surface of the water.
The whalcbone is used as a sieve
r.'""n"h which tho food IN strained.
therefore til" whale that kindly took
Jonah Sin out Of the wet" must have
been spermaccti, which has O big
throat and jaws with about one hundred
teeth in each.