THE INSECTIVOROUS BATS 



wherever man appears he foolishly interferes with 

 the balance of Nature by giving undue licence to his 

 cruelty-loving, destructive instincts. 



In every South African town and village our little 

 friends the bats may be observed during the evening 

 in the summer-time busily employed in capturing 

 insects, including the troublesome, and in many 

 instances malaria-carrying, mosquito. To kill an 

 Insectivorous Bat is not only a cruel, wanton act — 

 it is a positive crime. Yet it is a common pastime 

 for boys, and even grown men, to amuse themselves 

 by shooting and otherwise killing these eminently 

 useful little creatures. If a bat should accidentally 

 fly through an open door or window into a room, an 

 instant rush is made by the inmates for weapons 

 with which to maim and kill the terrified little 

 creature. If there is no man-made penalty attached 

 to taking the lives of God's living creatures, which 

 have been created for a definite and useful purpose, 

 numbers of otherwise moral and respectable people 

 seem to imagine that they are at liberty to give the 

 fullest rein to their destructive instincts, inherited 

 from remote and savage ancestry, and which ere this 

 should have been either bred out, or converted to 

 some better and higher purpose than the wilful 

 murder of our animal friends. 



In the Insectivorous Bat, the sense of touch is 

 marvellously developed. So sensitive are these nerve- 

 endings that it is not actually necessary for bats to 

 come into contact with any object unless they desire 

 VOL. I 97 7 



