THE WHISKERED BAT 



171 



Dr Alcock as lower in pitch than that of other species. Frank 

 Norton ^ likened it to the clicking of a cogwheel and chain. 



It was in this species that Mr Oldham first observed the 

 habit of pouching the prey ^ already alluded to in the account 

 of the Pipistrelle (see Plate VIII.), and his remarks thereon 

 may fittingly conclude this article. " My captive," he writes, 

 " used to tuck its head away under its body directly it had seized 

 an "insect, at the same time bringing its feet forward, so far indeed 

 that it sometimes lost its balance and toppled over on its back. 

 This habit, practised from the very first, was evidently one of old 

 standing, and not a trick acquired in confinement. By feeding 

 the Bat on a sheet of glass so that I could see it from beneath, 

 or, better still, by giving it an insect as it hung suspended by 

 its toes, the reason of its action was at once apparent. The 

 tail being directed forward beneath the body, the interfemoral 

 membrane formed a pouch into which the Bat thrust its head, 

 and was thereby enabled to get a firmer grip of its prey without 

 any danger of dropping it. When the Bat was on a flat 

 surface the lower side of this pouch was pressed closer to its 

 belly than would be the case during flight, so that it sometimes 

 failed to get its head into the pouch, and let a mealworm drop. 

 When this was the case it never made any attempt to seize its 

 prey again, and the mealworm would escape by crawling out 

 from beneath its wings or tail. When the Bat was suspended, 

 however, the bag was wide open, and the insect never escaped. 

 Experience seemed to teach it that the mealworms were 

 incapable of escape by flight, and latterly it did not always 

 thrust its head into the interfemoral pouch after seizing one, 

 but devoured it without this preliminary. In a free state. Bats 

 capturing the greater part, if not all, of their food on the wing, 

 must often fail to grip large insects securely at the first bite, 

 and it would be a manifest advantage to have some means of 

 adjusting their hold without alighting. An insect accidentally 

 dropped during flight could hardly be recovered, and would 

 probably be abandoned without further thought, as was the 



' Midland Naturalist, 1883, 151. 



^ Zoologist, 1899, 51-53. Norton {loc. cit., 152) had previously noticed that it could 

 be caught by the wing with a rod and line baited with a fly or moth, the wing, as 

 he thought, being used for striking at the bait. 



