408 A REMARKABLE ACCUMULATION OF BATS. 



another, and in Bome instances in couples and even trebles, according as the size 

 of the holes or apertures from which they emerged in the slate rooting would 

 permit. Their excursions invariably commenced with the cry of the " whip- 

 poorwill" both at coming evening and at early dawn, and it wa^ observed that 

 they always first directed their flight towards the river, undoubtedly to damp 

 their mouse-like snouts, but not their spirits, for it was likewise observed that 

 they returned to play hide-and-seek and indulge in all other imaginable gam- 

 bols ; when, after gratifying their love of sport and satisfying their voracious ap- 

 petites (as the absence of mosquitoes and gnats testified) they would re-enter 

 their habitation, again to emerge at the first signal of their feathered trumpeter. 

 I thus ascertained one very important fact, namely, that the bat, or the species 

 which annoyed us, ate and drank twice in twenty-four hours. Such appeared 

 their habit — such, therefore, was their indispensable need. Upon ascertaining 

 this fact, after having tried suffocation by the fumes of brimstone Avith only 

 partial success, I concluded to adopt a more efficient plan of warfare, and for this 

 purpose commenced by causing all the holes, fissures in the wood-work, and aper- 

 tures in the slating to be hermetically sealed with cement. This put a stop to 

 their egress, but to avoidtheir dying by starvation and deprivation of water, which 

 would much increase the annoyance by adding their dead to their living stench, 

 I ordered apertures of about two feet square to be opened in the lathed and plas- 

 tered partition on each side of the garret windows and also in the ceiling of 

 every garret room ; lastly, when the bat's reveille was sounded by the buglo 

 of the whippoorwill, all the hands of our establishment, men and boys, each 

 armed with a wooden implement, (shaped like a cricket-bat.) marched to the 

 third floor "on murderous deeds with thoughts intent;" a lighted lantern Avas 

 placed in the middle of one of the rooms, divested of all furniture, to allure the 

 hidden foe from their strongholds. After closing the Avindow to prevent all 

 escape into the open air, the assailants distributed themselves at regular dis- 

 tances to aA'oid clubbing each other, awaited the appearance of the bats, enticed 

 into the room by the artificial light and impelled by their OAvn natural craving. 

 The slaughter commenced and progressed Avith sanguinary vigor for several 

 hours, or until brought to a close by the weariness of dealing the bloAvs that 

 made the enemy bite the dust, and overpoAvered by the heat and closeness of 

 the apartment. This plan succeeded perfectly. After a fcAV evenings of simi- 

 lar exercise, in Avhich the batteurs became quite expert in the use of their weapon 

 every Avielding of the Avooden bat bringing doAvn an expiring namesake, the 

 war terminated by the extermination of every individual of the enemy in the 

 main building. HoAvever, there still Avas the cock-loft of the laundry, Avhich 

 gave evidence of a large population. In this case I had recourse to a plan 

 which had been recommended, but was not carried out in regard to the dAvelling- 

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

 repairing. This process discovered some fifieen hundred or two thousand bats, 

 of which the larger number Avere killed, and the surAiving 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, Avere d(!stroyed. This AA'as 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, before removing them to the manure heap, they Avere care- 

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

 the reckoning Avas made, and Avere not included in it, nor Avere those killed under 

 the adjoining laundry roof. The massacre commenced by killing fewer the first 

 evenings, the number increasing and then dihiinishing towards the end, but it Avas 

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

 mortality of one evening's work, dAvindling doAvn to eight, five, three, and tAvo. 



This species of bat is generally small, black, and very liA-ely ; some smaller 

 than the ordinary size Avere found, probably young ones, and one or two larger, 



