1865. ] MR. W. OSBURN ON THE BATS OF JAMAICA. 63 
impossible to imagine a more perfect or effective comb than the little 
foot thus used makes; and I would here remark on the extreme 
sensitiveness of these little animals. I have often been painfully im- 
pressed with the amount of suffering some of my experiments were 
causing, by observing their fretful impatience: a Bat, with its wing 
broken, its bright little eye glazed with coming death, would resist 
the first touch and hum of a mosquito, and exhaust its dying efforts 
to escape the annoyance. 
** A little after sundown, and, from the room below, the roof seems 
alive with movement ; there are squeaks and a shuffling scuffle over 
the boards. From the place of observation before alluded to, it is 
too dark to see plainly the Bats within, though their little forms 
may be traced scrambling eagerly up the boards of the gable 
till they arrive at the chink, when they become quite plain against 
the evening sky without, as they go over the edge, their elbows and 
ears in the action being particularly prominent. From without, or 
the window below, we can see them shoot off with great rapidity (so 
that I have heard disputes as to whether they are Bats or Swallows) 
and dart after their insect-supper with the most intense enjoyment, 
far over the neighbouring trees and pastures. I would remark that 
there is a distinction in the mode of flight of these Bats and our 
Hirundo peciloma. This is, that whilst the are formed by the tip of 
the Swallow’s wing is as much above as below the body, the wings 
being as far apart when fully raised as when fully depressed, in the 
Bat the wings scarcely rise above the level of the body, and meet ap- 
parently below. I do not mean this is universally the case. I do not 
think the frugivorous Bats do it; but it is very apparent in some of 
the insectivorous Bats when going at a great rate; and as I knew 
this species by tracing their course as they shot from their roosting- 
place, it must be noted as one of the most remarkable for this. Their 
exit during March was about half-past six o’clock. About eight to nine 
o’clock they returned. It is then they are so particularly annoying 
to the inhabitants of even the most carefully kept Jamaica houses. 
The great majority return to the roof; but one or two vigorous little 
fellows come into the room, and flap about in the most unmeaning 
way. Nothing is more remarkable than the agility with which a 
dozen, in the early part of the evening, skimmed and glided by every 
article of furniture. But now they bang themselves against the 
ceiling and walls, drop on the table, get up again, when the cat, by 
jumping, catches them a pat, and they fall on the floor, not much 
hurt, to judge by their liveliness ; for Grimalkin, having performed 
the feat, sits down, her paws tucked under, and gravely watches the 
hurry of the alarmed Bat shufiling over the floor. They disturb the 
harmony of the evening by becoming the occupants of, and making 
an escapade beneath, a gentleman’s coat-collar, or a great sensation by 
getting entangled hopelessly in a lady’s hair, and bite more furiously 
than effectively during the process of release. They remain very 
active all night, scampering and shuffling about their ample quarters. 
For several nights the noise was so great, I attributed it to rats ; but 
the Doctor assured me there were none—it was these little animals 
