40 



NOTES TO THE 



BATS IN CHURCHES. The following is a prescription which 

 will be of use to country clergymen who are plagued with bats 

 in their churches. " I can inform a brother clergyman that I 

 have succeeded in keeping bats out of my church by stuffing 

 bits of gorse or furze into the small recesses where they take 

 up their quarters. The same remedy applies in the case of 

 sowing peas ; if they are covered with small sprigs of furze, 

 the prickles will prevent their being attacked by mice. I am 

 now applying it also as a means of keeping slugs from young 

 plants of dahlias." 



MOUSE CAUGHT BY AN OYSTER, p. 37. I have in my museum 

 at South Kensington, preserved in spirits, an excellent speci- 

 men of a mouse caught by an oyster. When oysters are 

 exposed to the air any length of time, especially in hot weather, 

 they always " gape their shell ;" probably seeking for a drink of 



MOl'SE CAUliHT BY AX OYSTER. 



water. The beard at this time lies flat upon the shell. In the 

 case portrayed in the picture the oyster must have been placed 

 without water, in a larder. The mouse hunting about for food 

 put his head in to nibble at the oyster and was trapped. A 

 second specimen of the same occurrence was sent me in August, 

 1875. In both cases the mouse was killed by the pressure 

 of the oyster's shells. The adductor muscle which works 

 the shells of the oyster is very strong. The oyster that 

 caught the mouse is very handsome ; the points of a good oyster 



