WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



above and it was as undoubtedly made by bats. 

 There were two or three holes some way up 

 the tree that had been made by the green- 

 woodpecker, and it was evident that the bats 

 were living in them. I soon brought a ladder 

 and got up to the holes ; the squeaking came 

 from one of them, which was also marked 

 by a peculiar musty smell which belongs to 

 this kind of bat. It sounded like a family 

 quarrel, for they were squeaking most furiously : 

 however, they talked even more angrily when, 

 having enlarged the hole a bit, I was able to 

 put my hand in and pull them out. One by one 

 I popped them into a muslin bag, wherein they 

 were safe and could not get away, for I wanted 

 to photograph them, which was the reason I 

 had taken so much trouble to get them out. 

 There were four of them, one being a brighter 

 brown in colour than the others. This was 

 the male, the other three being females. The 

 ladies were duller, their soft silky fur being a 

 subdued brown. They were all about the same 

 size, having a wing expanse of a little over 

 fourteen inches. They scrambled about, one 

 over the other, seeming in a very bad temper 

 at the fix they had got into, snapping and biting 

 and squeaking angrily. At last, the photographs 



