THE EDUCATIONAL HUMANE SOCIETY 



12<J 



color as his coat. With kindest re- 

 gards and best wishes, 



Very truly yours, 



G. A. Hinnen. 



A Bat Fed Her Captured Young. 



Elgin, 1 Hint lis. 

 To the Editor : 



Attracted by the peculiar antics of 

 a robin, I was led to the discovery of 

 two bats which lay, partly concealed, in 



Firefly Hunting in Japan. 



In Japan fireflies are an adjunct to 

 all grades of social festivity from he 

 private garden parties of nobles to an 

 evening at a cheap tea garden. Some- 

 times they are kept caged, sometimes 

 released in swarms in the presence of 

 guests. To supply this demand there 

 are a number of firms in Japan employ- 

 ing men to catch the fireflies. At sun- 

 set the firefly hunter starts forth with 



THE YOUNG BATS. 



the grass under a maple tree from 

 which they had probably fallen. Two 

 square ash sieves, placed one in the 

 other, served as a cage. Here the bats 

 spent the rest of the day. The follow- 

 ing morning I went to see how they 

 had fared during the night, when I dis- 

 covered that another bat had joined 

 them and was clinging to the outside 

 of the sieve. 



This new arrival pioved to be the 

 i* 'Other. She had found her two young 

 ones in this unusual place, and was 

 musing them when discovered. At the 

 approach of dusk she flew away, and 

 did not return. 



For several days I attempted to keep 

 the young bats alive by feeding them 

 with milk from a teaspoon. My at- 

 tempts were in vain. Within a few 

 days they died. 



Carl F. Gronemann. 



a long bamboo pole and a bag of mos- 

 quito netting. On reaching a suitable 

 growth of willows near water, he 

 makes ready his net and strikes the 

 branches twinkling with the insects 

 with his pole. This jars them to the 

 ground, where they are easily gathered 

 up. But this must be done very rapidly, 

 before they recover themselves enough 

 to My. So the skilled catcher, sparing 

 no time to put them at once into the 

 bag, uses both hands to pick them up 

 and tosses them lightly into his apron 

 where he holds them unharmed till he 

 can hold no more, and only then does 

 he transfer them to the bag. His work 

 lasts till about two o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, when the insects leave the trees 

 for the dewy soil. He then changes 

 his method. He brushes the surface 

 of the ground with a light broom to 

 start the insects into light; then he 



