BATS AND THEIR YOUNG. 643 



With a third I waited until the bat seemed to be actually swallowing, 

 and unable to either discontinue that process or open its mouth to any 

 extent/ 



Its rage and perplexity were comical to behold, and, when the fly 

 was really down, it seemed to almost burst with the effort to express 

 its indignation. But this did not prevent it from falling into the 

 same trap again ; and, to make a long story short, it finally learned 

 by experience that, while chewing and swallowing were more or less 

 interrupted by snapping at me, both operations were quite compatible 

 with my gentle stroking of its head. And even a bat has brains 

 enough to see the foolishness of losing a dinner in order to resent an 

 unsolicited kindness. 



In a few daya the bat would take flies from my fingers ; although, 

 either from eagerness or because blinded by the light, it too often 

 nipped me sharply in its efforts to seize the victim. 



Its voracity was almost incredible. For several weeks it devoured 

 at least fifty house-flies in a day (it was vacation, and my playmates 

 had to assist me), and once disposed of eighty between daybreak and 

 sunset. 



This bat I kept for more than two months. It would shuflle across 

 the table when I entered the room, and lift up its head for the expected 

 fly. When traveling it was carried in my breast-pocket. 



In the fall it died, either from overeating or lack of exercise, for 

 I dared not let it out-of-doors, and it was so apt to injui'e itself in the 

 rooms that I seldom allowed it to fly. 



I should add that it drank frequently and greedily from the tip of 

 a camel' s-h air pencil. 



The following bits of bat biography are from White's "Natural 

 History of Selborne," and the " Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory : " 



" Having caught a lively male specimen of the common ' long-eared 

 bat ' {Plecotus auritus) and placed the little fellow in a wire-gauze 

 cage, and inserted a few large flies, he was soon attracted by their 

 buzz, and, pricking up his ears (just as a donkey does), he pounced 

 upon his prey. But, instead of taking it directly into his mouth, he 

 covered it with his body and beat it by aid of its arms, etc., into 

 the bag formed by the interfemoral membrane. He then put his head 

 under his body, withdrew the fly from the bag, and devoured it at 

 leisure. 



" This appeared to be always the modus operandi, more or less clev- 

 erly performed. Several times, when the fly happened to be on the 

 flat surface of the ground, the capture appeared more difficult, and my 

 little friend was, by his exertions, thrown on his back. The tail could 



' I did not understand this at the time. If my readers will try it, they will find that 

 it is very diflScult to even begin to swallow with the mouth open, and almost impossible 

 to prevent the morsel from descending after reaching the back of the throat. 



