WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



excitement that is too foolish considering 

 what a harmless little thing it really is. 

 However frightened the people are, the poor 

 bat is more terrified, as it is chased here and 

 there as they try to drive it out. It is won- 

 derful how these bats can dodge, turn, and 

 twist. It is almost impossible to catch one 

 with a butterfly net, and I have often tried for 

 twenty minutes or more before getting it. 

 Whatever the wing power of the long-eared bat, 

 it is nothing to that of the great bat or noctule. 

 It flies more like a swallow than a bat. I never 

 see one of these bats darting across the sky 

 without thinking of the summer evening when 

 I had been fishing on some large ponds that 

 lay in a wooded valley. Just as the light be- 

 gan to fade, numbers of swifts came hawking 

 for insects over the pools, and it was extra- 

 ordinary how loud the rushing of their wings 

 sounded on the still air. Their flying was a 

 marvel to watch. At the ' edge of night ' 

 noctules appeared among them, swooping and 

 turning like the swifts, but flying with the 

 highest this was about 10.30 P.M. (summer 

 time) and as it grew a little darker the birds 

 vanished and only bats were left. There 

 were hundreds of them dashing to and fro 

 20 



