846 



FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



Bat 



those that come in the evening, attracted by the 

 lamplight, and singe their wings over the flame. 



Who shall say how 

 many insects are 

 snapped up by 

 the bats in their 

 nightly tour of our 

 premises ? The 

 game is so small, 

 the hunter's appe- 

 tite so insatiable ! 

 ' ' Note what takes place on a calm summer evening. 

 Lured abroad by the mild temperature of the twi- 

 light hours, a swarm of insects leave their retreats 

 and come out to play in the open air, to hunt for 

 food, and to mate, one with another. It is then that 

 great night-moths fly abruptly from flower to flower 

 and plunge their long proboseis to the bottom of 

 the corolla, where they suck up the honey ; it is then 

 that the mosquito, eager for human blood, sings its 

 war-song in our ears and chooses our tenderest spot 

 for the insertion of its envenomed lancet; and it is 

 then that the June-bug quits the sheltering leaf, 

 spreads its resounding wings, and goes booming 

 through the air in quest of its kin. The gnats dance 

 in joyous swarms which the least puff of wind dis- 

 perses like a column of smoke ; the moths, their wings 

 powdered with silver dust and their antennae dis- 

 played plumeTfashion, indulge in frolicsome gambols 

 or go in search of favorable places for laying their 

 eggs; the little wood-gnawing beetles explore the 



