BATS. 45 



was worthy of observation and pleased me much. Insects 

 seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw 

 flesh when offered ; so that the notion, that bats go down 

 chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no improbable story. 

 While I amused myself with this wonderful quadruped, I 

 saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats, 

 when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by 

 rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I observed, 

 with more dispatch than I was aware of; but in a most ridi- 

 culous and grotesque manner.* 



Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the 



ounce, although the weight of the animal was no more than ten drachms. 

 It was in the evening that it came down to its food : throughout the day it 

 remained suspended by its hinder extremies at the top of the cage. It lapped 

 the water that drained from its food, and in this, no less than in its manner 

 of feeding, there was a marked distinction between the noctule and the 

 pipistrelle : the latter in drinking raises its head. The animal evidently 

 became quite reconciled to her new position. She took considerable pains in 

 cleaning herself, using the claws of the posterior extremities as a comb, 

 parting with them the hair on either side from the head to the tail, and 

 forming a straight line down the middle of the back : the membrane of 

 the wings was cleaned by forcing the nose through the folds, and thereby 

 expanding them. 



" On the 23rd of June, a young one was born, exceeding in size a newly 

 born mouse ; and having, from its birth, considerable power in its hind legs 

 and claws, by the aid of which it clung strongly to its dam or to the deal 

 sides of the cage. It was nestled so closely within the folds of the membranes 

 as to prevent any observation of the process of suckling. The dam was 

 exceedingly careful of it the next day also, and was observed to shift it from 

 side to side to suckle it, keeping it still folded in the membranes of the wings : 

 on these occasions her usual position was reversed. In the evening she was 

 found to be dead ; but the young one was still alive. It took milk from a sponge, 

 and was kept carefully wrapped up in flannel ; and by these attentions was 

 preserved for eight days, at the end of which period it died. Its eyes were 

 not then opened, and it had acquired very little hair." 



With the preceding notes, Mr. Bennett states that Mr. Daniell commu- 

 nicated to the Zoological Society some other particulars respecting the female 

 noctule, which were published in the Proceedings of that body for 1834. 

 These are less adapted to the general, than to the scientific, reader. 



It would seem probable, from the account given in the text of its manner 

 of feeding, that the tame bat observed by our author was the pipistrelle : a 

 bat which he and British zoologists generally, until very recently, confounded 

 with Vesperlilio murinus ; one of the most common, with one of the rarest 

 of the English species. E. T. B. 



* In the West Indies, bats do great mischief in gardens, where they 

 eat the green peas, opening the pod over each pea, and removing it very 

 dexterously. ED. 



