THE CAMERA 



245 



An Interesting Study of Bats. 



BY H. E. RANSIER, MANLIUS, NEW YORK. 



They were on a leafy twig when I first 

 saw them — a bat and her three young 

 bats. A boy had picked them up from 

 the ground under the maple trees in one 

 of the village streets. They had been 

 thrown down by a strong wind. The bat 

 was not injured, and appeared not to be 

 afraid for she allowed us to handle the 

 twig to inspect the young ones that were 

 entirely naked, and with their eyes still 

 closed. They looked more like young 

 mice than anything else with which I am 

 familiar. Occasionally one would poke 



I proceeded to take the little family's 

 picture by arc light. 



I first suspended them on a line, but 

 they swayed so constantly that I tried a 

 yard stick. The bat hung on, usually 

 with one hind foot, sometimes using both 

 hind feet, and sometimes even both hooks 

 on her wings. The five claws on each 

 hind foot are hook-like, about equal in 

 length, and enable the bat to remain sus- 

 pended without the least apparent mus- 

 cular effort. 



I exposed a number of plates but did 

 not get a single satisfactory negative. 

 The bat soon became restless and con- 



TWO ACROBATIC POSES OF YOUTHFUL BATS. 



his head out from under her wing, which 

 she tried to keep folded closely over 

 them, and sometimes they succeeded in 

 crawling outside. 



This was on June 18th, and the weather 

 had been cool. It was about dark when 

 they first came to my attention, and 1 

 was unable to give them any of my time 

 till after the evening's business had been 

 completed. When the doors were closed, 



eluding to take some exercise, away she 

 flew, circling the room many times be- 

 fore alighting. I took a position at the 

 strongly lighted end and when she made 

 the turn, I could see the two young bats 

 (one of the three having died) dangling 

 beneath her body, and looking like the 

 feet of some web- footed bird when in 

 flight. When she alighted to rest on one 

 of the electric light wires close to the 



