MOLES, SHREWS AND BATS — 203 
in winter. At twilight they come squeaking out 
to hunt in swift zigzag flight for small flying 
insects, thus destroying hordes of gnats and 
mosquitoes; and in the early morning they take 
another meal before disappearing. In this 
business their sharp eyesight is aided by an 
inconceivably delicate sense of touch in their 
wings and elsewhere. Where caves or rocky 
crevices abound they often cluster on their 
walls in great numbers, or elsewhere throng 
in hollow trees; but they are quick to resort 
to buildings, finding their way into barns, gar- 
rets, broken eaves, belfries and like places, and 
sometimes becoming a nuisance by their noise 
and dirt and abominable smell, but otherwise 
they are harmless. The superstitious fear of 
them felt by some persons is only a part of 
the nonsense that has come down to us from the 
Dark Ages, when all nocturnal animals were 
supposed to be somehow connected with the so- 
called ‘‘powers of darkness.’’ 
The bats breed annually, usually producing 
twins in early summer, which are born naked 
and cling to the mother’s body, where they may 
be suckled wrapped in her wings as she hangs 
