5? Account of Bugs found hi hollotu Trees, 



hollow tree two concave places filled with ftraw and foft 

 earth, in which the bats probably kept their young; for the 

 old ones when they fleep generally fulpend themfelves by 

 the hooks of their wings. Some time after, M. Blix having 

 heard that a bat had been feen to fly into a Imllovv' tree on 

 the idand where he refidcd, repaired to the place, and drove 

 from the tree thirty-fcvcn bats. It accidentally came into 

 his head to examine with a ftick the roof of their dwelling; 

 and when he drew out the itick he obferved the end of it 

 covered with bugs. lie made no farther examination till a. 

 few days before Chriftmas, when the tree was felled ; but at 

 this time neither bats nor bugs were to be feen. He, how- 

 ever, difcovcred that this tree had lodged guefts of various 

 defcriptions ; for the lower part had been inhabited by bats ; 

 the roof of the cavity by bugs ; the middle by nut-peckers, 

 and the top of the tree by a fquirrel. It is not altogether 

 improbable that the bugs had been carried thither from fome 

 habitation by the bats, efpecially as they were found, in the 

 firft cafe, on an ifland totally feparated from the continent, 

 and on which there was not a Angle houfe. It is more diffi- 

 cult to explain how fuch a multitude of bugs could find 

 nourifliment on two or three dozen of bats ; but inftances 

 liave been "known of ftone buildings infcfted with fuch ver- 

 min, remaining above a year uninhabited, and yet thefe in- 

 fers, fo far from being extirpated, have not even been leflenod. 

 We cari fcarcely then give any other explanation, than by 

 fiippofing that bugs eat each other when they have no other 

 pourifliment ; and that the lofs thence occafioned is fupplied 

 by their great multiplication. The caufe why no bugs 

 were found when the laft mentioned tree was felled, may 

 have been, that they were deflroyed by the birds. In confir- 

 mation of the above, M. Carlfon adds the following circum- 

 fiance : " In the year 1777," fays hq,' ^ I found an old 

 rotten ftake, that had been ufed for a fupport in a hedge, 

 which was fo covered with houfe bugs that it refembled aa 

 antrhill: it lay at a great diftance from cither houf«s or gar- 

 dens. 



