WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



not that of the lowered temperature of the 

 winter sleep— the poor little pipistrelle was 

 dead ! 



Though most bats are gregarious in the 

 summer— that is to say, live together in parties 

 sometimes numbering scores, and even hun- 

 dreds—yet in the winter they prefer solitude and 

 quiet. They go off singly, or at the most in 

 twos and threes, to snug holes and crevices in 

 rocks, old buildings, and trees. An example of 

 this was the thirteen long-eared bats found in 

 a bam ; with two exceptions, where there 

 were couples together, they were hidden singly 

 under the rafters. As this was in mid-October 

 there is no doubt these were their hibernating 

 quarters. I kept one of them for a few days 

 so as to learn something of its habits. It was 

 really a beautiful little animal, with its sUky 

 grey fur, quaint face, and long sensitive ears, 

 which seemed to throb and quiver with life. 

 There is a row of stiffish hairs along the outer 

 margins of the ears which, after watching this 

 bat, I am inclined to think is a help to it in 

 threading its way among twigs and leaves. 

 Like the pipistrelle, the long-eared bat soon 

 learnt to take flies well. The first that I 

 offered it, a greenbottle, it grabbed eagerly, 

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