Music of the Wild 



When I had studied her all I desired and photo- 

 graphed the family, she was replaced where she 

 had been found. 



She appealed to me as a happy mother busy 

 with affairs of momentous importance, for she 

 was raising triplets instead of the usual twins of 

 bat-land. A human touch that struck straight to 

 my heart often occurred when the young finished 

 nursing and crept over her body. They dug into 

 her skin until she squealed such a sibilant, faint 

 sound that it would have required multiplication 

 by a million to raise one healthy note in the great 

 chorus of the forest. I was reminded of a mother 

 crying out when her baby hurts her. It would be 

 well for every one to become sufficiently familiar 

 with bats to handle them, and find out what they 

 are doing, and why, and what their relation is 

 to us. 



Having learned these things, people will be- 

 come more in harmony with the scheme of crea- 

 tion. They will respect the motherhood of this 

 small winged animal, and recognize that in sifting 

 the night air for noxious insects, as do swallows 

 and martins by day, it is fulfilling a purpose in the 

 plan of creation and being of inestimable value to 

 us. If the pests exterminated by the flycatchers, 

 swallows, martins, night hawks, and bats were al- 

 lowed to multiply one season without being mo- 

 lested, humanity then would be ready to raise a 

 124 



