Ill THE SERVICE OF TAILS 73 
until it froze in, and its discomfited owner could 
get away only by breaking it off— mighty near 
its root, as any one can see to this day. This 
story, paralleled elsewhere in folk-lore, is an amus- 
ing fancy; but one might imagine a monkey really 
able to do something of that kind, if any monkey 
could be found which cared for fish. 
An actual instance, however, is afforded by the 
fish-eating bat of Trinidad (Moctelio leporinus), 
which finds its tail, and the membranes that con- 
nect that appendage with the thighs, of eminent 
service to it. Observers in the Trinidad Field 
Naturalists’ Club report (see their Journal, Vol. I, 
page 204) that this bat catches its prey (a fish) by 
throwing it up with the interfemoral membrane. 
Simultaneously the bat bends its head toward its 
tail to seize the fish as it is thrown from the water. 
Probably its long, sharp, curved toe-nails are also 
of assistance in this queer method of fishing. 
Similarly, ingenious rats have been known to 
purloin oil, jelly, and such desirable liquids from 
bottles too narrow for their entrance, by inserting 
their tails, and then licking the dripping member, 
or giving it to a neighbor to lick. Professor 
George J. Romanes proved beyond question that 
they did so, by experiments which are detailed 
in his book, “ Animal Intelligence,” to which the 
reader is referred. 
A like utilization of resources is the strategy of 
the puma, as observed on the Patagonian pampas, 
