No. 1. Is nisser, which Bruce distinguishes as the "golden eagle :" he describes him as "surely one of the largest birds that flies." From wing to wing eight feet four inches. From the tip of his tail to the point of his beak, when dead, four feet seven inches. Weighed twenty-two pounds." His baldness is the reason of our introducing him; it has already been described in the words of Mr. Bruce, and is very apparent in the print.

No. 2. The bearded vulture of the Alps, from Coxe's Travels in Switzerland. Mr. Coxe informs us, that this is from a female bird, which measured seven feet from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail, eight feet six inches its expanded wings. "This bird, though always called a vulture, yet differs from that genus, and is referrible to the eagle, in having the head and neck covered with feathers. It inhabits the Alps, makes its nest in clefts of rocks inaccessible to man, usually produces three young ones, sometimes four. Lives on animals which inhabit the Alps, the chamois, white hare, marmots, snow hens, kids, and particularly lambs, from which circumstance it is called the lamb vulture. Report says, it sometimes attacks man, and carries off children."

No. 3. The sea eagle, or ospray, from Pennant, shewing that no beard, deserving the name of beard, is attached to its beak, or chin.

No. 4. The talons of the ospray, shewing their curvature and strength.

No. 5. The racham of Egypt, as delineated by

Norden. This figure agrees well with the account of Hasselquist, who says, "this bird has the most hideous figure which can be imagined; the face skinny and wrinkled, eyes large and black, beak black and crooked, and the whole body covered with impurities. His aspect inspires I know not what of horror. It eats carrion; mingles among the dogs; does not fly high; is never seen around the lakes," &c. On the contrary, Bruce has given a figure, No. 6. which is of a much cleaner appearance than the description of Hasselquist would lead us to expect. "It is called by Europeans Pharaoh's hen; in Egypt, and all over Barbary, rachamah. This bird has been mistaken by nearly all the interpreters, Hebrews, Syrians, and Samaritans, and especially the Greeks. The point of the beak of this bird is black, very sharp and strong, for about three quarters of an inch; it is then covered by a yellow, fleshy, wrinkled membrane, as likewise is the fore part of the head and throat. The body is white. The large feathers of its wing all black. It has three toes before, one behind. It has no voice that ever I heard, generally goes single, and oftener sits and walks on the ground than upon trees. It delights in the most putrid and stinking kind of carrion; has itself a very strong smell, and putrefies very speedily!" Mr. Bruce has some remarks on the Hebrew word racham; but if his bird be not the racham of Moses, they do not apply to our object.

***Compare with the Mosaic prohibitions, as well of beasts as of birds, those ordained by Menu. Vide FRAGMENT, No. 342.

3

Fig.5.

B

KED

G

H

HAVING Considered the animals legally unclean, as well beasts as birds, we have remaining a creature whose equivocal properties seem to exclude it from both those classes: it is too much a bird to be properly an animal, too much an animal to be properly a bird; the bat, therefore, is extremely well described in Deut. xiv. 18, 19. as I conceive the passage should be read: "Moreover, the BAT, and every creeping thing that flieth, is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten." This character, which, thus understood, fixes to the bat the name used in both passages, is omitted in Leviticus: nevertheless, it is very descriptive; and places this creature at the head of a class, of which he is a very clear, and a very well known instance.

The genus, bat, is very numerous; and some of

them are very violent, very powerful, and very injurious; but without adverting to those of foreign countries, we shall only remark on the conformation common to all; whereby they are enabled to fly, and are in consequence distinguished from quadrupeds, or, as Deuteronomy expresses it, "creeping things.'

We have already ventured to assert, that the leading rule adopted in characterizing animals as unclean, was taken from their feet and toes; and this subject adds another in favour of our principles. To justify this idea, we shall translate from Buffon the remarks of Mr. Daubenton, on the conformation of the bat : referring to the figures on our Plate.

Fig. 1. "The legs of the bat appear to be absolutely different from those of other quadrupeds: and, indeed, they are directed, and even formed, in a very

particular manner. When the creature is at rest, the elbow of the arm, A. approaches the knee of the leg, B. The fore arm, A, C. is very long, and inclines obliquely from above to below, from behind to before. The wrist, C. rests on the ground; and in the fore arm only one toe, rather thumb, is visible; which stands backward. The knee, B. rises as high as the rump. The hind leg, B, G. has a vertical direction from above to below; and the five toes, G. of the hinder foot are directed outward, and are of commensurate lengths. The upper arm is directed horizontally, from forward to backward; and the thigh vertically, from below to above. The upper arm is hid behind the fore arm, and the thigh behind the leg; besides this, they are, together with the fore arm and the leg, enveloped in a wrinkled membrane, which conceals the tail, and almost all the hinder parts of the creature. In this state of repose, the breast and belly rest on the ground; for the four legs do not support any part of the weight of the body, but only prevent it from tottering, and falling on either side.

"In order to advance, the bat raises both his front legs with coincident motion, and places them at a small distance forward; at the same time, the thumb of each points outward; and the creature catches, with the claw of it, at any thing which it can lay hold of; then he stretches behind him his two hind legs, so that the five toes of each foot are also directed backward: he supports himself on the sole of this foot, and secures himself by means of the claws on his toes; then he raises his body on the front legs, and throws himself forward, by folding the upper arm on the fore arm, which motion is assisted by the extension of the hind legs, which also push the body forward. This gait, though heavy, because the body falls to the ground at every step, yet is sometimes pretty quick, when the feet can readily meet with good holding places; but when the claw of the front foot meets with what is loose, the exertion is inefficient. Such is the motion of the bat when fatigued, or in the day time, when too powerful light prevents him from distinguishing objects accurately; but when the light is suitable to the weakness of his sight, and the temperature of the atmosphere inclines the insects on which he feeds to come abroad, then he displays his capacious wings, launches into the air, and, rising and falling, he rapidly traverses considerable dis

tances.

"We have said, that when the bat was in a state of rest, only the thumb of his front feet was visible; but, in reality, he has also four very long fingers, connected with it, lying along the fore arm, which are enveloped in a membrane. When the creature takes to flight, he diverges his four long fingers from each other, spreads the membrane between them; and this now answers the purposes of a wing. This

membrane is supple, thin, semi-transparent; but so strong that it is not to be torn without exertion. Fig. 2. "Represents the bat in the act of flying: A. the arm; B. the fore arm; C, D, E, F. the fingers. The first finger, C. is near to the second, D. but the second, D. is further from the third, E. and the third, E. further from the fourth, F. as appears by the increasing intervals of the hollow sweeps, G, H, I. The references, K. and L. shew the membrane enveloping the rump and tail: M. is the thumb.

Fig. 3. "Shews the skeleton of the bat, in this attitude and action: a, the shoulder blade; b, the clavicles; c, the arm; d, the fore arm, which, instead of two bones, as usual in quadrupeds, has only one, answering to the radius in other animals; e, the system of the hand and fingers, comprising four very long fingers, 1, 2, 3, 4. and one shorter, the thumb, 5.

Fig. 4. "In order to render this formation of the front feet more distinct, and more impressive on the mind of the reader, this figure shews the front leg, or arm, at large. A. the arm; B. the fore arm; C, D. the carpus: E, F, G, H. the metacarpus ; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. the fingers and thumb, each divided into its phalanges, a, b, c.

Fig. 5. "The formation of the hind foot of the bat: A. the thigh bone; B. the tibia; C. the peroneam; D, E. the tarsus; H, I. the metatarsus; K, L. the toes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5."

This structure of the foot of the bat agrees with what we have observed on the other animals considered as unclean; that the evident and most conspicuous mark of unlawfulness was apparent to the meanest capacity, in the structure of the foot; whether it was only grooved, but not thoroughly divided, as the camel; apparently divided externally, but not correctly internally, as the swine; divided into more divisions than two, as the saphan, which has three toes; into four divisions, as the hare; or into five divisions, as the bat.

We shall offer a remark on the Hebrew name of the bat, hoy OTHELAPH, which has been usually derived from by oтH, to fly, and by OLAPH, obscurity, duskiness as if it described the "flyer in duskiness," i.e. in the evening. This derivation supposes that oth is put for oith, which certainly may be so; yet, I think, we might perhaps deduce it from a word spelled without the i, oth, to turn aside: so we read, 1 Sam. xiv. 32. "The people turned aside to the spoil;" in our translation, flew upon: and the same, chap. xv. 19. "Thou didst fly upon the spoil, i.e. turn aside to seize it; for it is evident, that this was a prevarication, not a direct flight, in a straight line as it were; but a turning aside, an irregularity. This very word oth, in Isai. xxii. 17. signifies to hurry with rapidity, with impetuosity; connecting the notion of irregularity, unsteadiness. tion of irregularity, unsteadiness. And this gives an idea of the passage very different from that in our

OUR translators have rendered weasel, the Hebrew word choled, in conformity with other versions, and not a few commentators; and they have rendered mole, the Hebrew word tinshemet; from which renderings we have ventured to differ. Having, as we presume to think, established the regularity of the system of the sacred writer, considered in reference to natural history, we have concluded that the word tinshemet, being at the close of a list of lizards, must denote a lizard, like its fellows: and that the mole is too distant in its nature to be properly introduced in such connection.

But we ought, perhaps, to give some reasons for differing from our worthy translators, in rendering mole what they have rendered weasel; and this we do, by observing, 1st, That the present name of the mole in the East is khuld; which is undeniably the same word as the Hebrew choled. 2dly, That the import of the Hebrew word choled, chold, or chuld, is to creep into; and that the same Syriac word implies to creep underneath, to creep into by burrowing, i.e. under ground; and so it is used, 2 Tim. iii. 6. in the Syriac version, "creeping into houses, by going, burrowing under them," which is the true idea of the Greek, and a very expressive phraseology. It is well known that such is the disposition of the mole; a creature formed expressly for the purpose of burrowing, and appointed to this mode of life; and not merely, as some creatures are, to burrowing above ground, but to burrowing under ground. For this purpose it has, as the reader will observe in the figure, a very large, broad, and powerful fore foot: it is short, thick, and muscular; while the hind foot, though strong, much more resembles those of other quadrupeds. The general history of the mole is as follows:

The mole is formed to live wholly under the earth, that no place should be left untenanted. Is fat, sleek, and glossy; and, though denied many advantages of other animals, enjoys some of which they are but scantily possessed.

Less than a rat, and bigger than a mouse, with a coat of fine, short, glossy, black hair; its nose long and pointed; its eyes scarce possible to be discerned. Instead of ears has only holes. Its neck short; body thick and round; small short tail; legs also very short; as it rests on its belly, the feet appear growing out of its body. The ancients, and some moderns, thought the animal utterly blind; but Derham, by a microscope, discovered all the parts of an eye. an eye. The fore legs are very short and strong, furnished with five claws each, turned outward and backward; the hind legs are longer and weaker than the fore.

By the breadth, strength, and shortness of the fore feet, which incline outward, it throws back the earth with ease; had they been longer, the falling in of the earth would have prevented the quick repetition of their strokes, and they would have required a larger hole for their exertion. The fore part of the body being thick and very muscular, gives great strength to the action of the fore feet, enabling it to dig its way with amasing force and rapidity.

Little vision is sufficient for a creature who lives in darkness; had the organ been larger, it would have been perpetually liable to injury by falling earth: that inconvenience is avoided by its being very small, and very closely covered with hair.

Buried in the earth, it seldom stirs out, unless forced by violent rains, or when in pursuit of prey it gets into the open air, which is hardly its natural element