WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



it up with great relish, but stopped eating 

 whenever it heard the slightest sound, and 

 seemed very shy and nervous. It would not 

 touch the spiders nor a woodlouse, and I after- 

 wards found that it did not like either, only 

 eating flies with any enjoyment. The next 

 evening it was again very lively, and seemed 

 much less afraid, taking flies readily from my 

 fingers. It would only eat quite fresh ones, and 

 turned away in disgust from those that had 

 been killed the day before. The following day 

 it was even tamer, eating happily while sitting 

 on my hand, which much increased my respect 

 for its intelligence, for it is only creatures 

 which have brains which learn by experience, 

 and this little bat had already, though so much 

 afraid at first, learnt that I meant it no harm 

 and that it could trust me. It no longer 

 squeaked frantically when touched, or opened 

 its little mouth in defiance. Instead, it sat 

 on my hand eating all the flies that it could 

 get. Twelve house flies, two bluebottles, one 

 drone fly (that large brown fly which looks 

 just like a hive bee, but is really nothing of the 

 sort), and a large gnat. The big drone fly gave 

 it a lot of trouble. First it chewed its head off 

 and dropped the body, which I picked up and 

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