ment of the late Dr. Hammersly,
then one of the resident physicians of the Pennsylvania hospital: on
the subsequent evening a male individual, of the same species, was
also taken in the same manner. In August 1830, a very fine specimen
was brought to the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Mr. Audubon informs
me that the species has very recently been observed in New York.

The natural characters of the species are--General colour black,
sprinkled with gray above and beneath; ears black and naked; auriculum,
short and broad or obtusely triangular; interfemoral membrane, sparsely
hairy; last joint of the tail free: two incisors, with notched crowns,
on each side of the canine teeth of the upper jaw, with a broad
intervening space without teeth.

The dimensions are.--Total length 3 inches 7 tenths; tail 1.7; length
of ear 0.5. breadth of ear 0.4; length of leg 1.7; spread of wings
10.7. inhabit Pennsylvania and New York, and probably the southern
states.--_Cab. of Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad._ (Abridged from
Featherstonhaugh's _Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural
Science._)

* * * * *

FINE ARTS.

* * * * *

MOSAIC PAVEMENT.

The chief object of curiosity at Palestrina, (ancient Praeneste,) is
the castle or palace of the prince, in the highest part of the city, to
which there is an ascent by an excellent coach-road to the right, by
the Capucin Convent, without entering the narrow street. Before it is a
level space of considerable length; which formed the highest platform of
the Temple of Fortune. Two flights of steps lead to an amphitheatre, or
semicular staircase, in excellent preservation, which is the same that
led to the sanctuary of the temple, on the foundation of which the
palace is built: in the middle of the semicircle is a well; each step
is about a foot and a half high, like the ancient steps of the capitol
which led to the church of Ara Coeli, at Rome. Another short flight
conducts to the hall of entrance, where there is a double staircase, and
a recess closed by iron grates, which contains the celebrated antique
pavement, of which Pliny speaks in the following terms, "The fine mosaic
of small stones, placed by Sylla as a pavement in the Temple of Fortune
at Praeneste, was the first thing of the kind seen in Italy." There does
not seem to be the smallest room to doubt of this being the genuine
mosaic he mentions; it is in excel