1198 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



For it is very doubtful if any bird could fly and catch insects 

 while bearing a load greater than its own weight. And the 

 Hoary-bat we know to be at least the Red-bat's peer in flight. 

 The latest date in my Journal for the Hoary-bat, at Toronto, is 

 mid-September. 



One of the most interesting facts connected with the far- 

 flight of this Bat is its occasional visits to the Bermudas in 

 autumn and early winter.* 



As these islands are 580 miles in a straight line from the 

 nearest land, which is Cape Hatteras, this is evidence of very 

 high-class wing-power indeed. 



Concerning its habits in general, I have little original in- 

 formation, nor do I know of any detailed account except that 

 by Dr. Merriam: 



"Imagine for the moment, sympathetic reader [he says]," 

 that you are an enthusiastic Bat hunter, and have chanced to 

 visit some northern forest where this handsome species occurs. 

 The early evening finds you, gun in hand, near the border of a 

 lonely wood. The small Bats soon begin to fly, and in the 

 course of fifteen or twenty minutes you may have killed several, 

 all of which prove to be the Silver-haired species {Laswnyctens 

 noctivagans). The twilight is fast fading into night, and you 

 are making a constant effort of searching its obscurity, when 

 suddenly a large Bat is seen approaching, perhaps high above 

 the tree-tops, and has scarcely entered the limited field of 

 vision when, in swooping for a passing insect, he cuts the line 

 of the distant horizon, and disappears in the darkness below. 

 In breathless suspense you wait for him to rise, crouching low 

 that his form may be sooner outlined against the dim light that 

 still lingers in the north-west, when he suddenly shoots by, 

 seemingly as big as an owl, within a few feet of your very eyes. 

 Turning quickly, you fire, but too late! He has vanished in the 

 darkness. For more than a week each evening is thus spent, 



« J. M. Jones, Mammals of Bermuda, Bull. 25, U. S. N. Mus., 1884, p. 145- 

 'Op. cit., pp. 176-7. 



