1 8 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



speaks of them as birds with wings of skin. Pliny says 

 they were birds which brought forth their young alive and 

 suckled them. So late as the time of Buffon this ignorance 

 of their real nature existed. He says : " An animal which, 

 like the bat, is half quadruped and half bird, and which in 

 fact is neither one nor the other, is a kind of monster." 

 Their appearance only in the evening and at night has con- 

 nected them with deeds of darkness, with witches, and even 

 with the king of evil himself. " Wool of bat " is one of the 

 ingredients of the witches' charm, and even at the present 

 time some have a passing shudder when a bat flies across 

 their path. It is strange to think that our little harmless 

 bats, " whose habits," says Bell, " are at once so innocent 

 and so amusing, and whose time of appearance and activity 

 is that when everything around would lead the mind to 

 tranquillity and peace," should be so mixed up with super- 

 stition and mystery. 



We may often notice late of a summer's eve a large bat 

 flying high in the air, making long circuits, but generally 

 reappearing after a few minutes ; this is the GREAT BAT or 

 NOCTULE (Scotophilus noctuld), one of the largest of our bats. 

 Its food consists chiefly of coleopterous insects i.e., beetles 

 and the like and it is particularly partial to the cockchafer 

 (Melolontha vulgaris). This bat flies with great rapidity, 

 and if watched for a few moments, a very peculiar motion 

 may be observed during the flight. It is, as Bell describes 

 it, like the fall of a tumbler-pigeon, and is produced by the 

 animal closing its wings for a moment or two whilst it 

 uses its armed thumb to transfix some big beetle which 

 it is unable to swallow at one gulp, so that it may 

 devour it more easily. The length of the body is nearly 

 3 inches, and the expanse of the wings from 13 inches 

 to 14 inches, sometimes even greater. 



The most common bat we see is much smaller than the 

 above viz., the PIPISTRELLE, or Flitter-Mouse (Scotophilus 

 pipistrellus). It is one of the least, as the noctule is one 

 of the largest, of our bats. This little fellow comes out 

 much earlier often, indeed, in dark gloomy weather long 

 before evening and flitters around us, seeking out the 



