Atalapha, a Winged Brownie 
the silent, lumbering Owls; the late, or very early, 
flying Falcons; the Weasel, or the Red Squirrel 
that might find and enter his den while he slept; 
the Trout that might leap and catch him as he 
took his drink a-wing. And still worse than these 
the deadly Acarus that lodges in the Bat’s deep 
fur. It is sure that the more the Bats harbor 
together in numbers, the more they are plagued 
by the Acarus. Yet there is a remedy. Instinct 
and example were doubtless the power that had 
taught him, for Atalapha clearly knew that when 
some Acarus lodged in his fur and made itself felt 
as a stinging tickly nuisance, the only course for 
him was a thorough hunt. Hanging himself up 
by one foot, he worked with the other, aided by his 
jaws, his lips, his tongue, and the supple thumbs 
on either wing. 
There was no part of his body that he could not 
reach; in him the instinct of cleanliness was strong, 
:2,6 SO he never suffered vermin in his fur. When, as 
“2 Sit chanced, through no fault of his the den became 
infested, there was but one remedy, that was move 
out. 
Yet one other peculiar menace was there in the 
lives of the Saranac community. Far up on the 
higher waters one of the big human things that can- 
not fly had built a huge nest. Across the river, too, 
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