WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



and take up at dusk the work on which the 

 swallows have been busy all day, i.e. that of 

 chasing and catching flies and gnats. Any 

 evening when it is warm enough for them to be 

 out and about you will be able to see how hard 

 they work. How they flitter, flutter, dash, and 

 turn, until in the failing light it makes one 

 almost giddy trying to keep one's eyes on the 

 little grey forms that appear and disappear, 

 whirling round one's head, vanishing into the 

 shadows, darting out again, rustling past with 

 beating wings, again to disappear along the 

 hedgerow or round the rose-bushes. But as 

 the dusk deepens into darkness, as it becomes 

 more and more difficult to see, when only 

 ghost-like white moths can be made out in the 

 gloom, when the brown owl's hoot rings 

 startlingly loud through the night, it will 

 dawn upon you that the rustling wings have 

 gone, that the high-pitched squeaks are no 

 longer to be heard— in short, the bats have 

 vanished ! The explanation is simple enough. 

 The majority of bats do not keep on the wing all 

 night ; they only fly for a short time at sundown 

 and at dawn, spending the night in their snug 

 homes, generally a crevice in an old building or 

 a hole in a tree. During their short flights they 



