y. Mr
Westwood's hypothesis, that they are moribund individuals after their
spring work, will not explain their vitality till September, and their
revivification when removed.

But these are insects; and the difference between vertebrate and
invertebrate life is so vast that, after all, the possibilities of the
latter may not have much bearing on those of the former. What, then,
shall we say to an indefinite prolongation of life under like dreary
conditions in--_Bats_? _Bats_, which are true vertebrata; and no
amphibia grovelling at the bottom of the vertebrate ladder, where the
dim flame of spinal life is just glimmering in the socket, but
_Mammalia_, and those of nearly the highest type;--_Bats_, which Linnaeus
associated with _Homo sapiens_ himself in his first Order _Primates_!
Can _these_ live for years shut up from light and food and air? these
great-chested, well-lunged, warm-blooded, aerial quadrupeds?
"Impossible! I would not believe it, if----" Stay! make no rash vows;
but read, weigh, and judge. Remember,--both the following statements are
by clergymen, each of whom is a well-known, careful, experienced
naturalist.

"A very curious instance," says Mr Pemberton Bartlett, "of the great
length of time that a Bat can remain in a state of torpidity, came under
my notice about three weeks since; and as I believe instances of the
kind are but rarely observed, perhaps an account of the facts of the
case may not prove uninteresting. Upon opening a vault in Bishopsbourne
church, the bricklayer observed a large Bat clinging to the wall.
Thinking it a curious thing to find a Bat in a vault which he knew had
not been opened for twenty years, in the evening he sent it to me by his
boy, who, when he arrived at the door, was tempted to open the basket to
look at the inmate, when most unfortunately it made its escape, and
flitted into a leaden spout which was placed against the house, from
whence I was unable to recover it. Upon learning the particulars of its
discovery, I made a careful search about the vault, but was unable to
trace any hole or crack through which the smallest Bat could have crept.
The bricklayer also informed me that there was no place where a Bat
could have entered, in the part where he opened the vault, as the
entrance was bricked up, and over the steps was a slab which fitted
close. If, indeed, it had been possible for a Bat to have got between
this, the brickwork at the entrance would most effectuall