in the well-expressed wish of the Editor of the _New Monthly Magazine_,
"that their author could be tempted to give the world a complete history
of one whose peculiar and subtle nature he so well comprehends."]

* * * * *




THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

NEW SPECIES OF BAT.--(VESPERTILIO AUDUBONI.)

(_By Richard Harlan, M.D._)


Of the numerous creatures which attract our admiration, or excite
our fears, the greater part display their appetites, or develope
their instincts, during the day time only; especially--with few
exceptions--all those remarkable for beauty of plumage, and vocal
melody. Predacious animals are chiefly distinguished for their nocturnal
habits; and ideas of rapine, terror and blood, are ever associated with
the tiger, the hyena, and the wolf. Among the feathered tribes, the
_owl_ and the _bat_, also companions of darkness, are shunned
by many, as horrible objects, and full of ill-omen. Haunted castles,
ruined battlements, and noisome caverns, are the chosen abodes of these
noctural maurauders, and it is to such associations that these animals
are indebted for the unamiable character they have obtained. The