332 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



course been arrested by falling in with the " Warren 

 Brown ? " What was to prevent a continuation of its flight, 

 perhaps to the shores of Bermuda, or even to a far more 

 distant land? 



That the Bat genus does cross the ocean from the shores 

 of America to the Bermudas I regard as an established fact, 

 proved by the periodical visitations I have already alluded 

 to. Now, if an animal, so local in its habits as the Bat is 

 supposed to be, should be accidentally blown off the Ameri- 

 can coast, and compelled to wander over the ocean until it 

 reached the islands of Bermuda, one might be led to sup- 

 pose that the mild climate of those islands, with the abun- 

 dance of insect food at command, would be so completely 

 congenial with its nature, as not only to induce the stranger 

 to become a permanent resident in its new abode, but like- 

 wise to relinquish altogether the desire of repeating, what 

 many might consider, a dangerous and fatiguing 'flight over 

 the waters of the Atlantic. Such, however, is not the case, 

 our Bat, visitors disappearing about the end of December, 

 or early in the following month, but whither they go I am 

 unprepared to say, though I think it likely they continue 

 their course to the southward. This simple fact appears to me 

 to set at rest the supposition of Bats being accidentally 

 blown off the American coast. Is not the cause, or im- 

 pulse, which dictates this departure from the shores of 

 Bermuda, of the same mysterious and divine character as 

 that which influences the periodical migration of the 

 feathered tribes ? 



I have spoken of the autumnal appearance of the Bat, 

 because at that season only is it generally to be met with. 

 One exception to this rule occurred in the month of April, 

 1 849, when I observed two of those animals busy on the 

 wing over a secluded pond, near Paget's Church; and 

 another in 1852, late in the month of March, when a soli- 



