RED AND BLACK BATS. 



Over the houses, in the windows, fluttering everywhere, 

 Like Butterflies gigantic, the Bats dive through the air; 

 Up and down, hither, thither, round your head and away. 

 Look where they wander, coming ever with vanishing day. 



C. C. M. 



BATS are so much alike, especially 

 those common to this country, 

 of which there are numerous 

 species known to naturalists, 

 that the description of one will serve 

 for all, with the exception of the 

 Vampire. 



The sub-order of smooth-nosed Bats 

 is represented in this country by sev- 

 eral species peculiar to America. The 

 most common in all the Atlantic coast 

 states is the Red Bat, or New York 

 Bat, which is a busy hunter of flying 

 insects, which it follows so persistently 

 that it frequently flies into rooms in 

 pursuit of its favorite prey. It flies 

 rather slowly, but it changes the direc- 

 tion of its flight very rapidly, and its 

 movements- in the air are very graceful. 

 Besides this species is the Black Bat, 

 and several others have been observed 

 and described, but so far the descrip- 

 tions, according to Brehm, have been 

 principally technical, and little or 

 nothing is known of their habits, ex- 

 cept that no North American species 

 seems to be harmful, but the coun- 

 trary, as they are all insect-eaters. 



The principal food of these Bats 

 consists of Butterflies, Beetles, Mosqui- 

 toes, and the like. 



All Bats sleep by day and fly about 

 by night. Most of them make their 

 appearance at dusk, and retire to their 

 hiding-places long before dawn. Some 

 species appear between three and five 

 o'clock in the afternoon and flicker 

 merrily about in the bright sunshine. 

 Each species has its own hunting- 

 grounds in forests, orchards, avenues, 

 and streets, and over stagnant or slowly 

 flowing water-surfaces. It is said to 



be rare that they fly over open fields, 

 for the reason that there is no game 

 for them. In the South they haunt the 

 rice fields, where insects are numerous. 

 Their hunting - ground is limited, 

 although some large species will cover 

 a mile in their flight, and the Bats of 

 the tropics fly over much greater dis- 

 tances. 



Bats are in general very much averse 

 to the ground, and never voluntarily 

 place themselves on a level surface. 

 Their method of walking is very cu- 

 rious. First the forelegs or wings are 

 thrust forward, hooking the claw at its 

 extremity over any convenient pro- 

 jection, or burying it in the ground. 

 By means of this hold the animal* 

 draw themselves forward, then raising 

 their bodies partly off the earth ad- 

 vance the hind-leg, making at the same 

 time a tumble forward. The process 

 is then repeated on the opposite side, 

 and thus they proceed in a strange and 

 unearthly fashion, tumbling and stag- 

 gering along as if their brains were 

 reeling. 



It has long been known that Bats 

 are able to thread their way among 

 boughs of trees and other impediments 

 with an ease that seems almost beyond 

 the power of sight. Even utter dark- 

 ness does not apparently impede their 

 progress, for when shut up in a dark- 

 ened room, in which strings had been 

 stretched in various directions, they 

 still pursued their course through the 

 air, avoiding every obstacle with pre- 

 cision. This faculty has been found 

 not to result from any unusual keen- 

 ness of sight, but from the exquisite 

 nervous system of their wings. 



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