1160 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



that this and all our species have 2 feed times each day — one 

 at sundown, one before sunrise. Never by any chance do they 

 work between meals, but return to their dens to repose, thus 

 living a life that, according to some of our prophets, is ideal. 

 TOILET The behaviour of this Bat when performing its toilet is 



thus described by Stone and Cram:" 



"One near the middle of the row was wide-awake; washing 

 himself after the manner of a cat, he would lick his foot or a 

 portion of his wing and rub his head with it the wrong way of 

 the fur, and scratch himself rapidly behind the ear with one of 

 his little thumb nails at the bend of his wing, the long bone of 

 his forearm beating a tattoo on the glass beside him as he did 

 so. The elasticity of the wing-merribrane is truly astonishing; 

 he would seize an edge of it in his mouth and stretch it into all 

 kinds of grotesque shapes in his endeavour to get it clean 

 enough to suit his fancy, and sometimes, when at work on the 

 inside, he would wrap his head up in it entirely, the thin 

 rubbery stuff conforming to the general outline of his skull in 

 the most startling manner." 



SLEEP- " The method of alighting is first by the wing or arm-hooks, 



head upward, assisted by the hind-feet. As soon as the latter 

 are firmly implanted, the Bat turns head downwards and hangs 

 by the sharply recurved nails of the hind-feet."'* {Rhoads.) 

 Millais says '° of the Greater Horse-shoe Bat in England: 

 "When this Bat is preparing to sleep, it begins to doze 

 gradually, nodding its head a little and ceasing to look about; 

 finally, its head falls and hangs straight, and the whole animal 

 commences to shiver. This muscular movement soon ceases, 

 and the animal is asleep." 



STRANGE The singular specialization of Bats is further evidenced 



NiTY in the following remarks by Sir Harry Johnston on the Noc- 



tule, a British kins>man of the present species:-" "It would 



seem to possess a relative insensibility to the effects of poison. 



" American Animals, 1902, p. 199. '" Mam. Penn. and N. J., 1903, p. 209. 



" Mam. G. Br., 1904-6, Vol. I, p. 30. =" Br. Mam., 1903, p. 89. 



