I 9 8 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



brickwork of the adjacent stable chinks have opened, 

 and in these and in the chinks between the wooden 

 lintel of the stable door and the bricks above it the 

 bats frequently hide, passing the day there. Others 

 hide in the tiles of the roof where their nests are made. 

 The labouring lads often amuse themselves searching 

 for these creatures, whose one object in daylight seems 

 to be to cling to something : they will hang to the 

 coat with the claws at the extremity of their mem- 

 branous wings, and if left alone will creep out of sight 

 into the pocket. There are two well-marked species 

 of bats here one small and the other much larger. 



The lesser bat flies nearer to the ground, and almost 

 always follows the contour of some object or building. 

 They hawk to and fro for hours in the evening under 

 the eaves of the farmhouse, and frequently enter the 

 great garrets and the still larger cheese-room (where 

 the cheese is stored to mature) sometimes through 

 the windows, and sometimes seeming to creep through 

 holes made by sparrows or starlings in the roof. 

 Moths are probably the attraction ; of these there 

 are generally plenty in and about old houses. Occa- 

 sionally a bat will come into the sitting-room, should 

 the doors be left open on a warm summer evening. 

 This the old folk think an evil omen, and still worse 

 if in its alarm at the attempts made to drive it away 

 it should chance to knock against the candle and over- 

 turn or put it out. They think, too, that a bat seen 

 in daytime is a bad sign. Once now and then one 

 gets disturbed by some means in the tiles, and flutters 



