i 3 o MAY 



lay inert on the bridge ; but at once seized a proffered 

 stick, clung to it with instinctive tenacity, and allowed 

 a complete scrutiny of its little person. 



In the ordinary way and outside museums the most 

 observant countryman has little chance of seeing the bat 

 except as a dark shadow of movement, cutting sudden 

 patterns in the material of twilight ; and the many species 

 of bat, which differ much in size, as the noctole from the 

 pipistrelle, and indeed in shape, as the long-eared from all 

 others these are quite unknown to the general. You 

 might live a number of lives in the country and still 

 know much less of the bat than, say, the verger of Wells 

 Cathedral, which is a famous home of half a dozen 

 species. So we looked at this windfall with interest. 

 What astonished the company was first the thickness 

 and warmth of colour in his coat, a sort of foxy brown, 

 brighter than a dormouse s, but suggestive of it ; and 

 secondly, the ludicrous resemblance of the face to a pig. 

 Everyone who sees a weasel at close quarters for the first 

 time notices its absurd resemblance to the mask of a fox ; 

 and everyone who sees a bat must think first of a flying 

 pig. The suggestion comes probably from the little dark, 

 you would say, cunning eyes. It was full sunshine when 

 this little bat fell, and it could probably see nothing, or 

 next to nothing, but the eyes looked as if they were taking 

 note of everything with all the beady alertness of a robin. 

 What a strange production, with the hooks on the elbows 

 of the wing, with the queer slaty shrivelled membrane 

 that makes a better wing for many purposes than any 

 bird s, and with the wide round ears adapted for hearing 

 the shrillest of all notes ? The animal was unhurt by the 

 fall and crawled with satisfaction into the crevice of the 

 boughs of a shady apple-tree, and thence took flight when 

 the evening moths came out into the orchard. 



