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BAT (‘atallçph).—The bat is a familiar object in Palestine, where no fewer than seventeen varieties have been identified. The two commonest are the horse-shoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrum equinum) and the long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus). All varieties in Palestine are insectivorous except one, the Xantharpyia œgyptiaca, which eats fruit. Bats flit about on noiseless wings by the score on warm summer evenings, especially in the Jordan Valley, and they are to be found in great numbers in ruins, old tombs, and caves all over the land, giving rise to many tales of ghostly habitation (Isa_2:20). They are counted as unclean ‘fowl,’ though a little separate from the birds, in Lev_11:19, Deu_14:18.
E. W. G. Masterman.