94 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



the same alarming noise. After the first excite- 

 ment was over I was positive the noise was not 

 produced by a snake, but what did cause it was 

 an unsolved mystery. 



When I put a ladder against the outside of the 

 house, however, to search for the intruder, I pur- 

 sued my investigations with the utmost caution, 

 notwithstanding my firm conviction that it was 

 no snake, but, to use a familiar expression, "there 

 was nothing doing," so we again returned to our 

 various occupations; and the incident would have 

 been forgotten had not my fisherman friend 

 chanced to look up and in doing so discovered a 

 small head protruding from a chink in the wall. 

 It was the work of an instant to mount again the 

 ladder and investigate. There I found, not a 

 snake, but the measliest moth-eaten, crippled, old 

 battered veteran of a bat that I had ever laid my 

 eyes upon. 



There was scarcely any hair upon the animal's 

 back and the slits in its ears and cuts on its face 

 were evidently the marks received in battle. Every 

 time I moved, the bat scolded me by emitting a 

 rattling sort of noise. I took it down from the 

 house and discovered that it was unable to fly, 

 so I hung it up in the hollow of an old oak tree 

 and left it to its fate. 



The bat was reasonably plump, did not have a 

 starved appearance and consequently must have 

 been able to capture its food without flying after 

 it. It appeared to me as if :t was suffering from 



