BATS. 



" IF indeed thy heart were right, then would every creature be to 

 thee a mirror of life, a book of holy doctrine." THOMAS 1 

 KEMPIS. 



THIS midsummer evening a bat flitted out 

 of the shadow, dodging hither and 

 thither after the manner of his kind. I doubt 

 if there is another animal common to our coun- 

 try so often seen and about which so little is 

 generally known. It is all the more surprising 

 when we consider what a truly wonderful creat- 

 ure it is. On the wing nothing is more agile, 

 on the ground it is helplessness personified. 

 Birds and insects can fly, but they can also 

 walk or hop, or run or crawl, but a bat can do 

 no more than hitch himself along on his fore- 

 elbows and hinder feet. When at rest he 

 neither lies down, nor sits up, nor goes to roost, 

 but he hangs himself up by his thumb-nails and 

 rests his body in the slack of his wings. He 

 has been a puzzle to people, who could not 

 make out where he belongs in the animal king- 



