Sonu Beasts of Reproach. 105 



the note of " their melancholy love." Clare also calls the 

 bat " shrieking." But except for these and perhaps half-a- 

 dozen more, I do not know that any of the many poets 

 who have introduced the bat into their evening sketches 

 remark its extraordinary voice. 



The flutter of its wings attracts their notice frequently. 

 Thus Collins has — 



" The weak-eyed bat, 

 With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing." ^ 



Grahame — 



" Round the strawy roof ,' 



Is heard the bat's wing in the deep-hushed air." 



And again — 



"The whirring wing of the dark bat" 

 Now here again comes in the fact that the bat's flight is 

 singularly noiseless. When it turns a sudden somersault, 

 there is a supple flutter heard, and when it drops down out 

 of the air close to the watcher's face in pursuit of a dodg- 

 ing moth, the soft crumpling of its wings is audible. But 

 it does not " whir," nor, as Byron says, " flap " — 



" The long dim shadows of surrounding trees, 

 The flapping bat, the night-song of the breeze." 



But B}Ton perhaps, writing from Greece, heard the large 

 frugivorous bat. 



As regards the flight itself, the descriptive touches are 

 commonplace enough. Clare's " scouting bats begin their 

 giddy round " is good, and so is Grahame's — 



" And even the reremouse when the twilight sleeps 

 Unbreathing, spreads her torpid wings and round 

 From stack to house or barn and round again, 

 With many a sudden turn, flits and eludes 

 The eye : " 



^ How many poets use the " leathern wing ? " Crabbe has "webby," 

 and Garth "sooty," but the rest when they specify the wing say 

 "leathern." 



