284 UPLAXD AND MEADOW. 



erratic a fashion that the first, second, and last might 

 have been the same individual ; so I gave up counting, 

 when once I saw, as I think, half a dozen darkly limned 

 against the sunset sky. There are four species to be 

 found along my hillside : the brown, red, black, and 

 dusky. Tlie first two mentioned are common; the 

 others are less so. Even if we have but a single speci- 

 men, it is never difficult to determine the species, and 

 learn his long Latin or Greek name. Sometimes this 

 proves vastly easier than to handle the fellow with safety 

 to one's fingers. The little differences of color, in the 

 wings, teeth, and even in their ears and cheeks, are safe 

 guides. For those who do not care to be thus particular, 

 but are interested in a very general way, there lies no 

 difficulty in recognizing a bat. No other mammal flies ; 

 not even a flying squirrel. Then, they are not over- 

 loaded with a multitude of meaningless names, as are so 

 many of our birds. To be sure, one obstinate old man, 

 who fishes in the meadows every day in the year, and 

 catches next to nothing, says they are "flittermice." I 

 asked him if a house mouse was the same thing with- 

 out wings. 



" Jus' 's like's not," he grumbled. 



Everybody else says a bat is a bat, and we can afford 

 to ignore the crabbed old angler. 



Much as bats have been written about, there seems to 

 have been no attention paid to the degree of intelligence 

 they possess — for I suppose they have a trace. 



Have they a voice ? Can they be tamed ? Are they 

 cunning? Some of the sub-tropical species are said to 

 scream ; but never a sound from any of our four bats, 



