MAMMALS OF THE AIR. 77 



all very well in the Far West, but it seems out of place in 

 the placid East. When one is captured by red-skins, one 

 should anticipate a lively time, but to be thus treated in 

 India, after a hard day's work while the mercury in the ther- 

 mometer was oscillating among the nineties, is unseemly. 



Accordingly, I make a point of casting into the outer 

 darkness any bat that is imprudent enough to invade my 

 domain. Now the eviction of an Irish tenant is mere child's 

 play as compared with the ejection of an obnoxious bat from 

 a lighted room at night. The tactics most approved by the 

 highest authorities are the opening of the door, and the tak- 

 ing of a stout bath-towel, then to try by gentle flickings to 

 persuade the bat to leave the room. Bats are, as a rule, not 

 amenable to reason, so there is no help for it but to violate 

 the canons of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals and fell the bat to the ground with a vigorous 

 stroke of the towel, and then pick it up with the tongs and 

 cast it forth. 



Of course, I am fully aware that bats, like Red Indians 

 when playing with their tomahawks, never actually touch 

 their victim. To avoid this, considerable skill must in each 

 case be displayed. Indeed, the sense organs of the bat are 

 unsurpassed for delicacy. This has been proved by Spal- 

 lanzani's classical experiment. He deprived some bats of 

 their eyes, ears, and noses, and then set the maimed crea- 

 tures free in a room across which threads were stretched in 

 all directions. The bats flew about freely, avoiding these 

 obstacles with the same ease that a London telegraph boy 

 threads his way through a crowded thoroughfare. The bats 

 were able to do this on account of the sensitiveness of their 

 wings, which in this respect resemble the antennas of insects. 



Bats fall into three classes, according to the food upon 

 which they subsist. There are the fruit-eaters ; those which 

 feed upon insects ; and the vampires, or those bats which 

 suck the blood of animals. Let us give these last the first 

 innings. It is usually written in books on Natural History 

 that blood-sucking bats are found only in South America. 



