Bat (Hastings' Dictionary)

The bat is placed at the end of tne unclean fowls (I>v 11» Dt 14"), but in Lv 11» the explanatory clause, ' all winged creeping things that go upon sJl four,' makes it perfectly plain that the oat is intended. The Arab, popular name for the bat is tcitwdt, and the classical name is khuffdsh. The Heb. name, 'd{allpph, signifies the nightjlier, in allusion to the habits of the animal.

The Arab, name signifies the weak-sighted, referring to the fact of the small eyes of bats, which see poorly by day. A man who has day-blindness is called alchfcuh, i.e. bat-eyed, from this circumstance. Bats are mammals, with a very light skeleton and body, and large membranous wings, spread be- tween the elongated phalanges, and from them and the bones of the forearm and arm to the body and legs.

They are nocturnal in their habits, spending their day in sleep, with their wibgs folded up, and suspended by a nook at the tip of the forearm, caught in some crevice of the roof of the cavern, or the ceiling of the tomb or ruin (Is 2"") where they have made their home, or fixed to the branch of a tree. The mousy smell of their haunts 1b overpowering where they are numerous. When not asleep, they are constantly squeaking like mice and rats.

When disturbed they fly in rapid circles around their dark abode, or sweep in a cloud out of its exit. At night they fly forth noiselessly, and circle around houses and gardens. They pluck large quantities of apricots, dates, and other fruits, and bring them to the porches of bouses and devour them, leaving quantities of the seeds and skins on the pavements, and spotting with their ordure the walls of the house as they fly.

It is eustomary to protect the clusters of dates, and of many other fruits, by a sort of basket or bag tied over them, and sometimes the whole tree by a net, lest all the fruit should be eaten by these rapacious feeders. The bats of the Holy Land vary from the size of a mouse to that of a rat. They swarm everywhere in the caves, tombs, and ruins. When a cavern or tomb is being explored the bats often ex- tinguish the torch or candle as the traveller passes through a narrow opening.

Tristram gives a list of fifteen bats found in Palestine. The bats of the coast and mountains hibernate. But Tristram says that those of the Jordan Valley seem to be always active. G. E. Post.