BATS. 159 



numbers, and may be called gregarious. I have 

 observed it flying near Wimbledon high in the 

 air, and long before the sun had set. It cer- 

 tainly feeds on young birds, and takes possession 

 of those holes in trees, in which there are broods 

 of starlings. On thrusting a stick into one of 

 these holes in a tree, I have driven out a con- 

 siderable number of these large bats, who re- 

 turned to it after flying about for some time. 

 Strong light, therefore, does not seem to affect 

 them, and as a further proof of it, I may mention 

 that a migration of some twenty or thirty of these 

 bats took place in the middle of the day in spring. 

 The garden-labourers at Hampton Court were at 

 work near a lime tree, in which was a hole about 

 eight feet from the ground, this hole led to the 

 nest of a starling, in which there were young ones 

 more than half grown. The men heard the noise 

 of the flight of the bats, and saw them all enter 

 the hole. I was very shortly afterwards made 

 acquainted with the circumstance, and on repair- 

 ing to the spot, was soon convinced that the bats 

 had killed the young starlings, and probably the 

 old birds, as I never saw them near the spot after- 

 wards. It is, therefore, not improbable that these 

 voracious animals migrate occasionally in search 

 of food in the spring, until the peculiar flies or 

 moths on which they feed in summer' are suf- 

 ficiently numerous to sustaim them. It is, I 



