ABOUT BATS 65 



20 bat as the noctule. The latter may be said to sleep 

 throughout the winter season ; but the pipistrelle 

 appears almost every month in the year. Any relaxa- 

 tion of temperature which promises the chance of an 

 insect or two is sufficient to draw it from its dormi- 

 tory even in mid-winter. The pipistrelle may be 

 found at any time during the day, but generally 

 comes out to hunt in the evenings of summer a con- 

 siderable time before sunset. The large noctule (which 

 may be regarded as Ariel's bat) comes forth an hour 



so before, and flits about an hour or more after sunset. 

 It flies much higher than the little pipistrelle, and 

 may sometimes be seen to fall suddenly a few feet 

 down the air a movement due to its sudden interest 

 in a good-sized moth which it has just struck into its 

 tail pouch, and which it must at once secure. Both 

 the pipistrelle and the noctule are rather denizens of 

 the twilight than of the night. They are most often Bats of the 

 seen in the evening twilight, because of the well- 

 known habit of mankind to neglect the morning ; but 



40 they are as much abroad in the grey of the morning, 

 when observers are few. Their shrill intermittent 

 scream or squeal shows either their eagerness in the 

 chase or their enjoyment of aerial freedom. They see 

 better than the nocturnal bats. 



Of the nocturnal bats, which flit about more or less 

 all night, two varieties, though rare with us, are worth 

 noticing viz. the long-eared (or rather the double- 

 eared) variety, with outer ears as long as its body and 

 inner ears of extreme sensitiveness ; and the strange, 



50 uncanny variety that flits noiselessly in the dark over 

 the glimmer of dead water, known as Daubenton's 

 bat. These two bats, the long-eared and Daubenton's, 



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