14 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
bat came on board his vessel during the night, and was 
captured by the seamen. He described it as being of a 
reddish-brown colour. | 
“Here, then, is an instance of the bat bemg found in the 
act of traversing the ocean; but whether blown off the 
coast, or migrating to more southern latitudes, is a problem 
which can only be solved by further observations, and an 
improved acquaintance with the history of this remarkable 
animal. May we not infer that its route, thus far, had 
been performed subsequently to the sunset of the previous 
evening, and that if the animal’s course had not been 
arrested by falling in with the “Warren Brown,” it might 
have continued its flight to the lonely islands of Bermuda, 
or even to far more distant lands 2 
“That the bat genus does cross the ocean from the shores 
of America to the Bermudas, I regard as an established 
fact, proved by the periodical visitations I have already 
alluded to; and if further proof of its power of flight 
should be required, I would refer to the well-authenticated 
circumstance of a specimen of V. pruinasus having been 
captured in South Ronaldsha, one of the Orkney Islands, 
in 1847, as mentioned in the Zoologist of January, 1849, 
there being no reason to doubt the actual flight of this 
animal across the Atlantic in the month of September. 
“Now, if an animal so local in its habits as the bat is 
supposed to be, should be accidentally blown off the 
American coast, and compelled to wander over the ocean 
until it reached the Bermudas, one might be led to suppose 
that the mild climate of those islands, with the abundant 
store of insect food at command, would be so completely 
congenial with its nature, as to induce the stranger to 
