I was much entertained last summer with a tame 



bat, which would take flies out of a person's hand. 



If you gave it anything to eat, it brought its wings round before 



the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of 



prey when they feed. 



The adroitness it showed in sheering off the wings of the flies, 

 which were always rejected, 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 ridiculous and grotesque manner. 



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

 as they play over pools and streams. They love to frequent waters, 

 not only for the sake of drinking, but on account of insects, which 

 are found over them in the greatest plenty. 



As I was going some years ago, pretty late, in a boat from 

 Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's evening, I think I saw 

 myriads of bats between the two places ; the air swarmed with 

 them all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at 

 a time. 



The large bat retires or migrates very early in the summer : it 

 also ranges very high for its food. 



The summer through, I have seen but two of that large species. 



In the extent of their wings, they measured fourteen inches and 

 a half, and four inches and a half from the nose to the tip of the 

 tail. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which 

 was of a bright chestnut colour. G. W. 



74 



