32 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



is only in South America that we find a few members of this 

 interesting family which deserve the very hard things that are said 

 about the bat tribe. 



In this country, on any warm evening in spring or summer 

 we may see Bats flying swiftly to and fro; and we may hear them, 

 too, for occasionally they utter a very shrill squeak, somewhat like 

 that of a mouse. 



They are then hunting for beetles, flies, moths, and other 



Bats asleep 



insects which only come out after the sun has set. Like the 

 swallow, they catch and devour their prey on the wing; and all 

 night long they are busily engaged in the chase. 



Once I kept a pet bat for some little time. He had been 

 wounded in one of his wings, and could not fly; so I put him 

 under a large glass bell, and fed him with big blue-bottle flies. 

 And how many do you think he used to eat every day? No 

 fewer than seventy! No doubt, if he had been abie to fly about 

 and take exercise, he would have required a great many more. 



The legs and wings of these flies were not at all to his taste, so 

 he carefully bit them off before eating the bodies. 



He used to catch his victims in a very curious way. He would 



