76 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



is more given to flying by day than the other bats, 

 and we have seen it flying at noon, in bright sunshine, 

 in the middle of winter. In cold winters this bat will 

 sleep for three months on end (other kinds sleep even 

 longer). It is like a little winged mouse in appearance 

 and size, with mouse-like fur on its body. Country 

 people still call the pipistrelle by its old English name, 

 Flitterrnouse. 



The scientific name for bats is " Chiroptera," from 

 two Greek words meaning hand and wing and bats 

 are hand-winged creatures, forming, in the animal 

 kingdom, a group of their own among the mammals. 

 The leathery skin covering arms and hands, and ex- 

 tending to the legs, forms wings, which allow bats to 

 fly strongly and with marvellous quickness, so that 

 the eye can hardly follow their twistings and turnings. 

 The bones of the hand, covered by the skin, are drawn 

 out to a great length, and only the short thumb, which 

 is furnished with a strong claw, is left uncovered. 



Sometimes we have taken baby bats in hand tiny, 

 naked animals, weird to behold, seeming very helpless, 

 but able from birth to cling to their mothers by their 

 claws. 



Some people still suppose that bats are blind, but 

 they have sharp enough eyes, though they may be 

 hidden by fur. No animal has a more wonderful sense 

 of touch, a sense so acute that even if a bat were blind 

 the sensitive nerves of its nose or wings probably would 

 give it timely warning before it collided with any 

 unseen obstacle in its way. 



By day and through the winter bats lurk in such 

 dark places as the roofs of barns, and, hanging by their 

 claws, head downwards, enfold themselves in their 

 wings to sleep. The long winter sleep is a stupor, 

 almost the sa^ne as death. 



