MAMMALS OF THE AIR 337 



mammal pursues its airy course it will be seen, if carefully watched, 

 to move its ears backwards and forwards as if the beast were eagerly 

 trying to catch the slightest sound. And when flight is over and 

 rest is needed, the Bat retires to its chosen habitat and hangs head 

 downwards at peace with all the world, but before it passes into 

 slumberland it takes the precaution to fold up its ears, and displays, 

 when doing so, a care which one exhibits when putting away a 

 dress suit ! 



Catch the Long-Eared Bat asleep and you will probably be 

 surprised to find that it looks a different animal when thus seen. 

 Look at its head ! The long ears are gracefully folded up, but 

 what is that small appendage ? That is the inner lobe, or tragus 

 as it is called, and you may well be excused if you imagine that 

 this species is possessed of two pairs of ears, an outer and an inner ^ 

 pair. 



These insect-eating Bats are very voracious feeders, and in a 

 season when we are threatened with a plague of insect denizens 

 they perform an immense amount of good, and blessed be their 

 appetites at such times. 



Brief reference may be made to the Greater and Lesser Horse- 

 shoe Bats, which are so called because they have what is known 

 as a nose-leaf in the form of a horseshoe, and to the fact that whilst 

 British Bats are dull coloured there are species which inhabit other 

 climes whose fur is beautifully coloured, and those examples of the 

 large Fruit Bat that I have seen in collections have been most 

 attractive by reason of the brilliant orange-yellow upon the belly. 

 These captive Bats are seen to little advantage, for they rarely take 

 to flight, stretching a wing occasionally and giving one an idea 

 of their immense wing-stretch, but that is all. Anchored towards 

 the top of their cage, there they remain day in and day out and 

 look strangely out of place when it is known that flight to them 

 at any rate has been made impossible. 



PIPISTRELLE.— Last among the few kinds of Bats that it has 

 been found possible to notice is the Pipistrelle, and this little species 

 deserves inclusion because it is the commonest British Bat arid the 

 smallest we possess, being comparable in size to the Common 

 House Mouse, and resembling that little rodent in more ways than 

 one. 



It is not so fond of sleep nor of the hours of darkness as some 

 of its relatives, as it hibernates for only some three months out 

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