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The Chiroptera, or Finger-Winged Animals, comprising the great family of Bats, etc., which are very highly developed animals; The Lemuroidea, or Lemurs, the name of which is derived from the Latin word meaning a "ghost," by reason of the Lemur's habits of roaming about at night.
The "outs" tried to bowl these down, and the "ins" to defend them with curved broad-ended bats. It was necessary to run between the wickets at each strike. The need for a gymnasium was speedily recognized, but the agitation for it among the students continued for thirty years before the present building was finally completed in 1894.
As long as the Chief and his gallant posse remained in sight everyone crouched there and took it out in staring. Then when even Farmer Trotter had been swallowed up in the scrub, sighs might have been heard arising from some of the boys' lips, as though they were relieved to have the suspense ended. "Never glimpsed us!" remarked Mark, triumphantly. "Blind as bats in the day-time!" added Landy.
It was now his turn to keep watch, and as the rest of them got into their hammocks, and lay awake for a while, they saw him take up the bat, spit it upon a forked stick, and commence broiling it over the fire. Of course he ate it! When morning came, and they had got up, what was their astonishment to see no less than fourteen bats lying side by side!
Warwick is a great whispering-gallery, full of tale-bearing bats that peep and mutter." He lifted his head and listened. "Did you get that faint lift of the breeze in the pines just then? Now it's gone; but it was just like the distant sound of the surf. If my eyes were shut, I should think myself by the shore."
Like other bats, it hangs from the limb of a tree, head down, in the daytime, and goes to business at night. Its body is not much larger than that of a hare, but when in flight it is four or five feet from tip to tip. The flying "cat" is likewise a misnamed animal that bears no relationship to pussy, but is a kind of lemur.
We can see why whole groups of organisms, as batrachians and terrestrial mammals, should be absent from oceanic islands, whilst the most isolated islands possess their own peculiar species of aërial mammals or bats. We can see why there should be some relation between the presence of mammals, in a more or less modified condition, and the depth of the sea between an island and the mainland.
"I cannot fathom it," he said on returning to his master, "and, to tell truth, I wish we were well back in the forest again, for I like not this mysterious city and its ways. We have kept this town as close sealed as a wine butt, yet I dare swear that I have caught glimpses of the Archbishop's men, flitting here and there like bats as soon as darkness gathers.
I hope I may never again be in a state of mind so unchristian as the mental frame in which I lived for some weeks, respecting the memory of Master B. Whether his bell was rung by rats, or mice, or bats, or wind, or what other accidental vibration, or sometimes by one cause, sometimes another, and sometimes by collusion, I don't know; but, certain it is, that it did ring two nights out of three, until I conceived the happy idea of twisting Master B.'s neck in other words, breaking his bell short off and silencing that young gentleman, as to my experience and belief, for ever.
The night-birds catch up the sound and screech; the frightened bats circle round wildly. At this moment heavy footsteps creak upon the gravel under the shadow of the wall. A low whistle passes through the air, and the dogs disappear. "A savage pack, like their mistress," was Count Nobili's thought as his eyes tried to pierce into the growing darkness. Night is coming on.
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