2o8 Cincinnati Society of Natural Histoiy. 



somewhere in the rear of the loft, and then all was still. That same 

 piping could sometimes be heard in the evening twilight, and at 

 last enabled the landlord's boys to discover and demolish the nest, 

 though only after a week's still hunt, for the tell-tale squeaks would 

 cease at the least" noise. But for those who come with less 

 murderous intents the trouble of the search may repay itself by the 

 sight of the strange, and really extravagantly uncouth little night- 

 hags, that seem to represent all the monstrous types of the species 

 in an exaggerated degree, as in certain kinds of birds, where the 

 repulsive adult — the ugliest turkey-buzzard, for instance, is a 

 paragon of beauty, compared with its pot-bellied and goggle-eyed 

 youngsters. 



The natural domicile of the insectivorous bat is in the recesses 

 of large, hollow trees, but while forest destruction has sadly 

 decimated the woodbirds of the eastern hemisphere, bats have 

 survived the work of destruction by taking refuge in caves and 

 ruins, thus helping nature, by stealth, as it were, to mitigate the 

 worst results of the mischief, — the over-increase of noxious insects. 

 In parts of Syria where birds are rarely seen outside of poultry 

 yards, swarms of bats flutter at night, like guardian-spirits, about 

 the scanty vestiges of arboreal vegetation, and disappear at sunrise 

 in tombs and caves— in time to escape the malice of the superstitious 

 natives. Various kinds of night-birds have been driven to similar 

 shifts. In the agricultural regions of western Europe the Strix 

 y7aww^a has become a " barn-owl," sharing the daylight refuge of 

 rats and mink, for the Germans have a Hans inarder, or " house 

 marten," a relative of the weasel, and equally fond of poultry, but 

 withal apt to pay for its lodgings by its ceaseless warfare on 

 mice and rats. A kindred night-prowler, the Missouri polecat, or 

 " chicken mink," haunts the barns of our western grain states, and 

 is still frequent enough in the far Northwest to furnish, under 

 various synonyrns, a considerable quota of American peltry. 



In the South the word " polecat " is often applied to the com- 

 mon skunk, but the Missouri chicken-thief is neither a mephitis, nor 

 a true mink, but a half-brother to the ermine and the English stote 

 or "fitchet. " There are two American varieties, the smaller one 

 not much bigger than the Canada weasel, the larger a connecting 

 link between the weasel and the mink proper. It passes the coldest 

 winter days in a sort of dormouse sleep, and is so fond of a snug 

 berth that nothing short of a conflagration or a first-class " vermin 

 dog " will oust it from its dormitory in a weathertight barn, and on 



