The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-01-17
seem IN BAT WORLD
Habits and Oddities Of Little
Night Creatures.
IL Not a Bird. but a Mammal, With a
Great Difference From the ordi-
nary Four-Lessed Land
Going Type

OF all the more common animals
about us the bat Is probably the least
well known to the average man, a
writer in the Scientific American
states. This is because of its n%octur-
nal habits and the consequent difficult
ty In observing 1t. Indeed, all that
most people seem to know about bats
Is that they fly at night and are "aw-
full things to get into your hair" As
a matter of fact, there Is no authentic
instance of bats ever alighting upon
a woman's hair, and they are no more
in the habit of doing so than are hum
ming birds.
The fact is, very little is known
concerning the habits of bats and
much remains to be found out about
them. The order comprises some $50
species, but It is safe to say that
three-fourths of them are known only
by their dry skins and skulls. They
exhibit differences in form that are
fairly bewildering. They range all
the way from the beautiful to the fan
tastic and hideous. The great ma
jority, however, are useful to man in
destroying insects which, without the
aid of birds and beasts, would very
soon overwhelm him. The harmful
species are those which destroy fruit
and a few which suck the blood of
domestic animals.
The bat has figured in folklore from
the earliest times. Bats are supposed
to have given the Latin poet Virgil
the idea of harpies-creatures that
had the faces of women and the wings
and claws of birds. The Greeks had
a story about the two daughters Of a
certain hero who, on account of their
obstinacy, were changed by the gods
into bats. The Saxons called the bat
the "rere-mouse." The word m
from hreran, to move, and mus, a
mouse-the mouse that moves the
air with it's wings. The word is now
used only in heraldry as signifying a
bat on a coat of arms. You may hear
country people speak of the filter
mouse, and the word has been used
sometimes in poetry, as for instance:
And giddy fittermice with leather
wings"
The Chinese speak of the bat as
the heavenly rat, the fairy rat, the
flying rat OF the night swallow. Their
ideas of the animal are very odd;
they believe that it flies head down
ward because its brain is so heavy,
and that it lives to a very great age
because it has the habit of swallow
ing its breath. They also take the
bat as their emblem of happiness. A
symbol consisting of five bats is
called wee fun, or the five happi-
nesses" which every one is supposed
to desire; they are wealth, health,
goodness, long life and a peaceful
death. In China, IL you wish your
guest good luck, a graceful way of
doing so Is to have five bats depicted
on the bottom of his teacnA ~.
The bat is not a bird but d mammM.
with almost as wide a departure from
the ordinary 'fourlegged, ~land-going
type as is a whale of manatee. Its
hand reveals an extreme degree OF
what is called specialization" For a
mammal the arms are unusual length.
The bones of the fingers are enor-
mously extended and connected with
hairless skin as flexible as India rub
Der to form a wing for flight. This
wing membrane is extended on up the
arm to the body and the legs, and is
continued between the legs and tail,
where it forms a supporting para
chuce in flight. The thumb of a bat
Is very short and free, and its nail is
developed as a hooked claw, by the
aid of which the creature can COM
fortably climb about or support itself.
The favorite position of a bat at rest
Is hanging by It's feet, head down.
ward.
One of the strangest characteristics
about the bat is that it cannot fly
from the ground. When it finds itself
p o terra firma it crawls painfully to
some wall or tree, and, clambering up
to a suitable elevation, launches IT.
self into the air. Curiously enough,
too, it accomplishes this climbing
trick upside down, holding on with
one of its hinder hooks while 1t
reaches up and lays hold of the slight
est inequality with the other. In this
way it makes rapid progress and,
ainging itself into the air, takes fight.
Once upon the wing all awkwardness
Of the bat disappears as il by magic.
Plague Rat Convicted
The editor of the Manila Daily Bui-