The I have heard it once or twice in the last few 

 Summer years, and once in a story where the teller, 

 era s ' speaking of an outlaw who was a great deer- 

 hunter in the wilds of Inverness, was found 

 dead ' with the fork of an ash-root through 

 his breast, pinned like a red fox he was, and 

 he by that time hunting the bat in the black 

 silence.' It would be inapposite, here, to 

 linger on this theme, but I am tempted to 

 record one or two of these bat-lore fragments 

 which I recall : and perhaps, from the scarcity 

 of such traditional flotsam and jetsam, some 

 readers and bat-lovers may be interested. 



The bat, commonly called in Gaelic an 

 ialtag, or dialtag, though even in the one 

 Shire of Argyll at least six other common 

 names might as likely be heard, is occasionally 

 poetically called the Bad liar an- dim, the dark 

 wandering one. I remember being told that 

 the reason of the name was as follows. In 

 the early days of the world the bat was blue 

 as the kingfisher and with a breast white as 

 that of the swallow, and its eyes were so large 

 and luminous that because of this and its 

 whirling flight its ancient name was a name 

 signifying 'flash-fire' — though now become, 

 with the Gaelic poet who told me this, dealan- 

 dhu badhalaiche ckoille, 'the little black wander- 

 ing flame of the woods.' But on the day of 



*5Q 



