ZOOLOGY. 15 
become a permanent resident in its new abode, and relin- 
quish altogether the desire of repeating what to many may 
appear a dangerous and fatiguing flight over the waters of 
the Atlantic. Such, however, is not the case; the bat 
visitors disappearing, as already stated, about the end of 
December. Whither they go I am not prepared to say, 
though I am inclined to believe that they continue their 
course to the southward. This simple fact appears to 
me to set at rest the supposition of bats being acci- 
dentally blown off the American coast. Is not the cause 
or impulse which dictates this departure from the shores of 
Bermuda, of the same mysterious character as that which 
influences the periodical migration of the feathered tribes ? 
“T have spoken of the autumnal appearance of the bat, 
because at that season of the year only is it generally to 
be met with in Bermuda. On two occasions only have I 
observed a deviation from this rule, the first on the 23rd of 
April, 1849, when two of these creatures appeared, busy 
on the wing over a secluded pond in Paget’s parish, one of 
which I shot; the second on the 17th of March, 1852, 
when a solitary V. pruinosus was met with in the Pem- 
broke marshes. As these observations were made in the 
spring, when many of the feathered tribe are moving on 
their northern flight, and when, in the former case, several 
species had actually reached the islands, it became a 
problem in my own mind, whether the bats might not also 
be travelling in the same direction. 
“The bat is by no means a common animal in the Ber- 
mudas. In some years it is rarely seen, in other seasons it 
is more common. I have met with several of the native 
inhabitants who had never seen one. 
