XX IXTRODUCTIOX. 



sake, tlie war terminated l)y the extermination of every individual 

 of the enemy in the main building. However, there still was the 

 cock-loft of the laundry, which gave evidence of a large popula- 

 tion. In this case I had recourse to a plan which had been re- 

 commended, but was not carried out in regard to the dwelling- 

 house. I employed a slater to remove a portion of the slating 

 which required repairing. This process discovered some fifteen 

 hundred or two thousand bats, of which the larger number were 

 killed, and the remainder sought the barn, trees, and other places 

 of concealment in the neighborhood. 



" In the main building nine thousand six hundred and forty bats, 

 from actual counting, were destroyed. This was ascertained in 

 the following manner : After the battling of each evening the dead 

 were swept into one corner of the room, and in the morning, be- 

 fore removing them to the manure heap, they were carefully 

 counted and recorded ; many had been killed before and some few 

 after the reckoning was made, and were not included in it, nor 

 were those killed under the adjoining laundry roof. The massacre 

 commenced by killing fewer the first evenings, the number in- 

 creasing, and then diminishing towards the end ; but it was 

 generally from fifty or a hundred, up to six hundred and fifty — the 

 highest mortality of one evening's work — dwindling down to 

 eight, five, three, and two. 



" This species of bat is generally small, black, and very lively. 

 Some smaller than the ordinary size were found, probably young 

 ones, and one or two larger, supposed to be grandfathers, of a 

 reddish hue, which was thought to be from age. These vermin 

 were generally more or less covered with a small sized bug, not 

 very dissimilar to the common chinch, but of a different species. 

 As previously stated, the bat has a very disagreeable odor, which 

 also pertains to its ejection. 



" The manure, as well as the bodies of the slain, was used to 

 fertilize the flower and vegetable garden, and thus, in some degree, 

 they served to compensate us for the annoyance to which we had 

 been subjected. The manure, however, required to be a]^plicd 

 with caution, since, if used in too large a quantity, it appeared to 

 burn the organism of the plants. 



" To remove the very disagreeable odor which remained in the 

 upper part of the house, various kinds of disinfectants were em- 

 ployed with some advantage ; but the most effectual method re- 



