62 Winter Holes [FOURTH WEEK 



look in all directions. Then lifting its fingers slightly, it 

 bends its head and wraps all in the full-spread web. It is 

 most ludicrously like a tragedian, acting the death scene 

 in " Julius Caesar," and it loses nothing in repetition; for 

 each time the little animal thus draws its winding sheet 

 about its body, one is forced to smile as he thinks of the 

 absurd resemblance. 



But all this and much more you will see for yourself, 

 if you are so fortunate as to discover the hiding-place of 

 the hibernating bat. 



Our little brown bat is a most excellent mother, and 

 when in summer she starts out on her nocturnal hunts 

 she takes her tiny baby bat with her. The weird little 

 creature wraps his long fingers about his mother's neck 

 and off they go. When two young are born, the father 

 bat is said sometimes to assume entire control of one. 



After we come to know more of the admirable family 

 traits of the fledermaus its musical German name we 

 shall willingly defend it from the calumny which for thou- 

 sands of years has been heaped upon it. 



Hibernation is a strange phenomenon, and one which 

 is but little understood. If we break into the death-like 

 trance for too long a time, or if we do not supply the right 

 kind of food, our captive butterflies and bats will perish. 

 So let us soon freeze them up again and place them back 

 in the care of old Nature. Thus the pleasure is ours of 

 having made them yield up their secrets, without any 

 harm to them. Let us fancy that in the spring they 

 may remember us only as a strange dream w r hich has 

 come to them during their long sleep. 



