YKSl'KKtV.n NOCTIVAGANS. I 93 



hollow trees which are cut for firewood during winter. I may add 

 that the season of 1880 was very backward in Maine, cold rains and 

 occasional flurries of snow occurring with disagreeable frequency 

 well into June." 



The bat hunter has many difficulties to contend with. ^ight 

 creeps upon him so insidiously that he is only made aware of its 

 presence by the number of shots missed (which multiply with 

 painful rapidity with the increasing darkness), and by the great 

 trouble and loss of time experienced in finding the bats that fall to 

 the ground. The temptation to linger as long as the bats can be 

 distinctly seen is very great, but should be resisted if the hunter 

 has any regard for his reputation as a wing shot. When two shots 

 out of three are missed, it is time to go home. Moonlight evenings 

 are also very misleading, but the novice soon learns to avoid such 

 illusions. I believe that I could not average one bat for every 

 dozen shots by the brightest moonlight. The greatest obstacle in 



J I5 O <_> 



bat shooting is the inability to calculate distance after early night- 

 fall, objects invariably appearing much farther off than they really 

 are. Thus, a bat is frequently fired at when supposed to be at 

 proper range, when in reality it is so near that the shot have not 

 time to scatter, and it is consequently either missed altogether or 

 so blown to pieces as to be worthless. I have sometimes, after miss- 

 ino- a bat with the first barrel, brought it down with the second, when 



o *-> 



it seemed so far away that I was surprised to find that my gun carried 

 to so great a distance. On going to pick it up I have been still more 

 astonished to find it within short range, rarely over seventy-five 

 feet (22.86 metres) from the spot where I had stood. This decep- 

 tiveness in distance manifests itself in another embarrassing way, 

 for in searching for the bat in this dim light one is almost certain to 

 overestimate the distance at which it fell. Hence a well-trained 

 dog, with a good nose, is of the greatest assistance. 



The length of time that the fading light will permit of bat shoot- 

 ing in any single evening varies from a little over half an hour, to 



