6 Coward, Greater Horseshoe Bat in Captivity. 



when the beetle had risen two or three inches from the 

 ground, it was doomed ; the bat came down hke a falcon 

 stooping, and with marvellous precision caught the flying 

 beetle in its jaws, and carried it off to some place where it 

 could pitch and devour it. For several weeks this 

 performance was repeated on an average two or three 

 times each night, and though on a few occasions the 

 beetle got well into the air before it was captured, by far 

 the greater number were secured before they had risen 

 many inches from the ground. 



In order to watch closely the method of devouring 

 food I frequently allowed the bats to hang from my 

 fingers and gave them beetles. If the beetle was small it 

 was eaten without any assistance from the wing ; the 

 larger the beetle the more vigorous the action of the bat. 

 When a large beetle was seized it was at once thrust into 

 the posterior portion of the interbrachial membrane. The 

 claws of the leg on the side thus used were usually 

 released from their hold, and the whole wing brought 

 suddenly forward, by simultaneous stroke of arm and leg, 

 to meet the head. The beetle was practically beaten 

 against the membrane by rapid movement of the bat's 

 head, assisted by the forward stroke of the wing. This 

 wing-action, suggestive of the use of a hand, has no exact 

 parallel in the apparently similar use of the interfemoral 

 pouch by vespertilionid bats. The beetle was moved by 

 the bat against the membrane, for its position in the 

 mouth had frequently to be shifted before the bat could 

 devour the abdomen and reject the head ; and sometimes 

 the action of head and wing together actually pushed the 

 beetle further into the mouth. When the beetle was first 

 seized the wings of the bat were only slightly unfolded, 

 held free but with the membrane partially hiding the 

 body, and when the bat took a beetle from the hand it 



