BATS 47 
duty. Holding it above my head, I caused it to 
spin round so rapidly that it was no longer a cane 
in appearance, but a funnel-shaped mist moving 
with and above me as I walked. “ Now, you little 
rascal,” said I, chuckling to myself as the bat 
came; then making the usual quick circle he 
dashed down through the side of the misty ob- 
struction, made his demonstration over my cap, 
and passed out on the other side. I could hardly 
credit the evidence of my own eyes, and thought 
he had escaped a blow by pure luck, and that if 
he attempted it a second time he would certainly 
be killed. I didn’t want to kill him, but the thing 
was really too remarkable to be left in doubt, and 
so I resumed the whirling of the stick over my 
head, and in another moment the second bat came 
along, and, like the first, dashed down at my cap, 
passing in and out of the vortex with perfect ease 
and safety! Again and again they doubled back 
and repeated the action without touching the 
stick, and after witnessing it a dozen or fifteen 
times I could still hardly believe that their escape 
from injury was anything but pure chance. 
Here I recall the most wonderful flying feat I 
have witnessed in birds—a very common one. 
Frequently when standing still among the trees 
of a plantation or wood where humming-birds 
abounded, I have had one dart at me, invisible 
owing to the extreme swiftness of its flight, to 
become visible—to materialise, as it were—only 
when it suddenly arrested its flight within a few 
