The signification of this term tachash has given rise to much controversy into which this is not the proper place to enter. It may be stated, however, that none of the versions acknowledge an animal of any kind to be intended except the Chaldee, which supposes the badger to be referred to; and from it we have borrowed our translation of the word. The Septuagint and Vulgate have skins dyed of a violet colour; the Syriac, azure; the Arabic, black; and so on1. One of the arguments further urged against the 'badger' amongst some of the authorities is that the animal does not occur in Palestine. But this is an incorrect statement, since Canon Tristram finds that a badger, apparently identical with our own species, is common in Palestine, although perhaps hardly reaching to Sinai. Being nocturnal in their habits, badgers are not readily observed. Nevertheless, the trouble of procuring them, their unsuitability in size, and their undoubted scarceness in Sinai, where they were really required, render it impossible that this could have been the animal meant.

The present Arabic term tuchash, or duchash, is a general name for the dolphin; and other large sea animals, such as seals, cetaceans, porpoises, appear to be included under it. [See WHALE.] The skins of some of these animals are used for such purposes as making sandals to the present day in the Sinaitic district. The Dugong (Halicore) is so employed, but it is coarse and unpliable in texture, and seems scarcely suitable for ladies' slippers or for wrapping up costly

1 Dr. A. Clarke, quoted by Dr. Harris in his Natural History of the Bible (1824). This exhaustive and learned work of Dr. Harris appears to have afforded much unacknowledged information to subsequent writers. Modern researches have no doubt corrected many of his views, but as a storehouse of antiquarian lore on the subject the book is most valuable.

utensils. In all probability some species of the marine mammalia, possibly the monk seal, but more likely the dugong or the porpoise, was capable of being prepared for such purposes, and wherever these animals occur some one or other is usually made use of by the inhabitants. This appears to be the view taken by the compilers of the Revised Version, who have altered the text to 'sealskin.' I would prefer to read dugong, unless we are to suppose that sealskins were an imported article.

BAT (Heb. by atalleph).

The Bat is spoken of as one of the fowls that may not be eaten in Deut. xiv. 18, and Lev. xi. 19. Being winged, it was no doubt included amongst fowls, although a mammal. The subsequent verse of Leviticus classes it amongst fowls that creep, going upon all four.'

The Bat is alluded to in company with moles, as inhabiting holes and cavities about ruins, where a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold

to the moles, and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rock and into the tops of the ragged rock' (Isa. ii. 20, 21).

Bats, it is well known, resort to caves, ruins, and deserted buildings for shelter by day, being nocturnal in their habits. In this country, where we have several species they hybernate during the winter, owing to the coldness of the climate, and in North and Central Palestine they do the same, but in the sub-tropical district of the Ghor they are active during the winter, but by no means common.

Seventeen species have been enumerated from Palestine, and no doubt more will be discovered. Several of

these are sorts found in England, as, for instance, the common Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritus), which is frequently to be seen about the Sea of Galilee. One or two others, the Serotine and the Greater Horse-shoe, are also found in both countries; but the majority of the Palestine bats are more southern and eastern in their range.

The extraordinary power possessed by bats of threading their way through the darkest caverns has been the subject of numerous experiments, and it has been demonstrated that it is by an extreme sensibility to touch that they guide themselves. This exceptional development of the sense of touch resides chiefly in the membranous expanse of wings, but also in the enlarged ears and peculiar leaf-like nasal appendages found in some groups of the order.

A very large number of bats have been described from various parts of the world. The great majority of them feed upon insects, but some are frugivorous, and a few live, in part at any rate, upon the blood of other animals.

Bats have been regarded as birds from the earliest times down to the middle of the seventeenth century, or in some cases, as that of Plato, as neither bird nor beast. Ray, the eminent zoologist, was the first (1683) who placed them in their proper position amongst the mammals, of which they form a distinct order according to modern naturalists.

The bats of Palestine belong chiefly to the genera Vespertilio, Rhinolophus, Plecotus, Rhinopoma and Taphozous.

From the frequent mention of the Bear in Scripture, and its occurrence in Central Palestine being apparently