BATS 47 



duty. Holding it above my head, I caused it to 

 spin round so rapidly that it was no longer a cane 

 in appearance, but a funnel-shaped mist moving 

 with and above me as I walked. " Now, you little 

 rascal," said I, chuckling to myself as the bat 

 came ; then making the usual quick circle he 

 dashed down through the side of the misty ob- 

 struction, made his demonstration over my cap, 

 and passed out on the other side. I could hardly 

 credit the evidence of my own eyes, and thought 

 he had escaped a blow by pure luck, and that if 

 he attempted it a second time he would certainly 

 be killed. I didn't want to kill him, but the thing 

 was really too remarkable to be left in doubt, and 

 so I resumed the whirling of the stick over my 

 head, and in another moment the second bat came 

 along, and, like the first, dashed down at my cap, 

 passing in and out of the vortex with perfect ease 

 and safety ! Again and again they doubled back 

 and repeated the action without touching the 

 stick, and after witnessing it a dozen or fifteen 

 times I could still hardly believe that their escape 

 from injury was anything but pure chance. 



Here I recall the most wonderful flying feat I 

 have witnessed in birds — a very common one. 

 Frequently when standing still among the trees 

 of a plantation or wood where humming-birds 

 abounded, I have had one dart at me, invisible 

 owing to the extreme swiftness of its flight, to 

 become visible — ^to materialise, as it were — only 

 when it suddenly arrested its flight within a few 



