78 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



The bat's eyes are small, but its hearing is very acute. 

 Its mouth opens almost up to the ears, which helps it to catch 

 insects on the wing. The teeth are well adapted to insect 

 food. They are all sharp, and look like the points of so 

 many needles. With such teeth the creature can easily 

 hold and kill even the hardest beetle. What birds catch and 

 eat their food on the wing ? Do their bills open very far ? 



How the bat sleeps and rests. The toes on the hind feet 

 of a bat are free from the mantle. With these the bat 

 hooks itself to a nail or twig, or to a rough wall, and thus 

 rests with its head hanging downward. When evening 

 comes, it lets go its hold, and while dropping spreads its 

 parachute and flies off. 



On the ground, bats are very awkward. Their limbs are 

 not intended for running, as are those of the nimble mouse. 

 By means of the thumb-nails and the claws of the hind feet, 

 they pull and push themselves along. They cannot rise 

 from the ground, but climb up to some high place from 

 which they drop down while spreading their parachute. 



How bats live in winter. When severe frosts have killed 

 insect life or driven it into its hiding-places, the bats also 

 disappear. Some migrate like birds, others hang themselves 

 up in caves, rocks, crevices, hollow trees, and other places 

 of shelter. The wings, by means of which the bat glided 

 noiselessly about in the orchard on so many warm summer 

 evenings, now become the cloak of the little creature, whose 

 food supply has given out, and who has nothing better to 

 do than to sleep away the long, dreary winter. 



36. Flies. 



MATERIAL : House flies, stable flies, and blowflies in a bottle. Only 

 a few of each species are needed. 



Everybody knows the house fly. In late summer they 

 are often so numerous that it is almost impossible to keep a 

 house free from them. 



