INSECT-EATING ANIMALS 191 



stretched an elastic skin or membrane, which the 

 bat uses for flight and for its wonderful sense of 

 touch. 



As the bat flies at night it is said to possess 

 poor eyesight ; but when one sense is defective 

 another is often very strongly developed. So 

 the bat has a wonderful sense of touch. And 

 this sense-touch has its seat in the flying mem- 

 brane, in the skin of the ears, which are often 

 large, and in some bats also on the nose and lips. 



If a bat has poor eyesight, how does it capture 

 its winged prey, for it flies fast and without 

 the slightest noise, and its swerves are remark- 

 ably swift and sudden ? 



One evening a bat flew into the writer's room, 

 and he was amazed at the rapidity of its flight 

 and sudden swerves round the room to avoid any 

 collision with the things in the room. 



How did it avoid knocking against the walls 

 and furniture of the room, of which it had no 

 previous experience ? 



Is its sense of touch so remarkable that it can 

 feel when it approaches an object, or does the 

 bat possess some other sense of which we know 

 little or nothing? 



There is much to be learnt about a bat. 



Bats are particularly useful to agriculturists, 

 and on no account should they be destroyed. 



They principally devour night-flying moths 



