Photo by Fratelli Alinari] [Florence.
PIPISTRELLE BAT.
This is one of the commonest of the British bats. It is the first to appear in the spring, and the last to retire at the fall of the year.
Insect-eating Bats.
The vast majority of the bats comprising this group feed exclusively on insects. Some, however, have acquired the habit of fruit-eating, like the true fruit-bats; and a few have developed quite ogre-like habits, for they drink blood—indeed, they subsist upon nothing else. This they obtain from animals larger than themselves.
Many of the bats of this group have developed curious leaf-like expansions of skin around the nose and mouth, which are supposed to be endowed with a very delicate sense of touch. In some, as in the Flower-nosed Bat, the nose-leaf is excessively developed, forming a large rosette. The upper border of this rosette is furnished with three stalked balls, the function of which it is surmised is probably ornamental—from the bat's point of view. To our more æsthetic taste the whole effect is hideous.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
LEAF-NOSED BAT.
The leaf-nosed are the most highly organised of all the bats. The remarkable leaf-like folds of skin around the nose or chin, as the case may be, serve as delicate organs of perception. There are numerous species of leaf-nosed bats.