244 BURIED ALIVE. 



disappearance. The Noctule, or great High- flying, Bat is the 

 earliest to retire, being seldom seen after July, while the Pipis- 

 trelle, or Common Bat, continues abroad to the end of autumn, 

 and may occasionally be seen flitting about in fine weather in the 

 depth of winter. 



In retiring for their winter sleep they resort to pretty much 

 the same kind of places as those in which they pass the hours 

 of daylight in summer-time. Like the Jackdaws, the Bats seem 

 to be very partial to ecclesiastical retreats, and it is no great 

 while ago that a paragraph appeared in some of the newspapers, 

 to the effect that the verger of Peterborough Cathedral was 

 making a little fortune by exhibiting upwards of two hundred 

 Bats which had quietly hung themselves up for the winter in a 

 dark corner in one of the towers of that venerable edifice. 



It sometimes happens that in its efforts to find out a snug and 

 secure place in which to pass the winter, the Bat insinuates 

 itself into places which seem absolutely closed against it, and 

 thus it has occurred that stories have got abroad of these animals 

 having been found alive in situations where they have been im- 

 mured for many years. A case of this kind is recorded in the 

 " Zoologist " for 1854. It appears that in making some repairs 

 in the pavement of the aisle of a village church, it was found ne- 

 cessary to remove some bricks from the wall of an adjoining 

 vault, and one of the workmen thrusting in his hand, was ter- 

 ribly alarmed at its coming in contact with a Bat suspended from 

 the roof of the vault. 



The vault was formed of solid masonry, and no aperture or 

 even a crack could, it is said, be discovered, by which the Bat 

 could have entered. And to make the marvel greater, there was 

 good reason to believe that the vault had not been opened for a 

 hundred and six years ! The narrator of the discovery is fully 

 persuaded, of course, that the animal had been walled up the 

 whole of that period ; but the fact that it was only half torpid 

 on being taken out of the vault, and that it speedily thereafter 

 recovered the use of its wings and made good its escape, is the 

 best proof that it was not such an ancient as its discoverer sup- 

 posed. 



No less than fifteen or sixteen species of Bats are found in 

 Britain, but the great majority of them are either rare or confined 

 to a fe\v localities, and thus are seldom seen. The little Pipis- 



