are these switches for?" asked Lucien, in surprise.

"M. Sumichrast wants to catch some bats, Chanito."

"Does he intend to eat them?"

"Oh no; though I have no doubt they would be very good."

"Their flesh is delicious," interposed Sumichrast; "the wing especially
is a tidbit which I can highly recommend."

But my friend could not keep a serious face when he saw Lucien's
frightened look; so his joke partly failed in its effect.

L'Encuerado entered the cave on tiptoe. The rest of us, taking up a
position at the entrance, made every preparation to enrich our
collections. Two bats soon fell, beaten down by our switches. Lucien
examined them without much repugnance, but the shape of their muzzles
surprised him even more than their wings. One of those which he examined
had lips cloven in the middle and doubled back; the other had a flat
nose and still more hideous visage, and possessed, instead of ears, two
enormous holes, at the bottom of which were situate its black and
brilliant eyes. Added to this, the membrane of its wings was so thin and
transparent that it seemed as if it must tear with the slightest
exertion. The poor little animal gradually recovered itself, and showed
its delicate and sharp teeth. Sumichrast took it up, and hung it by the
claw at the end of its forearm, in order to show Lucien the way in which
these creatures cling to the rough places which form their usual
resting-place; but it suddenly let go its hold, and disappeared in the
dark cave open in front of us.

The bat, apparently an imperfectly-formed creature, was for a long time
a puzzle to naturalists. Fontaine makes it say:

"I am a bird; look at my wings!
I am a mouse; the mice forever!"

_Savants_, also, used to describe it as a bird provided with hair
instead of feathers, and with teeth instead of a bill. Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire was the first to teach that the wings of the bat are
nothing but the fingers of the animal joined together by a thin
membrane. I had thus another opportunity of proving to Lucien the wisdom
of our Creator, and the simplicity of the means He employs in producing
the infinite variety of beings which people the universe.

"This is the first time," cried l'Encuerado, indignantly, "that I have
heard the devil made use of as a means of bestowing praise upon Almighty
God."

"Bats have no connection with your devil," said Sumichrast; "they are
nothing but animals, rather more curiously constr