440 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



course of this operation, and very much to his surprise, one of 

 the supposed leaves, as it got its firing, instantly spread out a 

 pair of black wings, and with an angry twitter made off with a 

 singed coat. It was a Red bat that had been thus treated, and yet 

 the doctor did not recognize it until it flew to escape a further 

 scorching. Here was a case where protective mimicry did not 

 help much. 



Some of our bats have the hair of a beautiful snuff-brown color, 

 as, for instance, the Serotine bat (Adelonycteris fuscus), specimens 

 of which I have kept for months at a time. These bats become so 

 tame in confinement that they will both eat and drink while being- 

 held in the hand. In drinking they are very cunning, lapping the 

 water up as they do with the tongue, after the fashion of a little 

 dog. They drink a good deal, and have simply enormous appe- 

 tites. One specimen in the course of a single night consumed 

 twenty-one full grown June bugs (Lachnostema fusca), leaving 

 only a few legs and the hard outside wing-sheaths (elytra) as evi- 

 dences of his feast and gluttony. It was extremely interesting 

 to watch him capture and devour one of these great buzzing beet- 

 les. Often I would serve him with as many as half a dozen at a 

 time, but he always ate one up entirely before attacking a second 

 victim. In holding his prey the interfemoral apron of the bat was 

 frequently used, and sometimes he devoured an entire bug in the 

 lap of it. I have heard it said that this bat also uses its apron 

 during flight, as a net to catch the larger beetles which it feeds 

 upon. By curving the membrane forward, as it notices a June 

 beetle in its flight, it can easily scoop it in, and reaching forward, 

 seize it with its teeth in an instant. When much alarmed, many 

 of our smaller bats greatly protrude the eyeballs, even to a far 

 greater extent than is seen in many small rodents. 



Xow, the Serotine bat very rarely suspends itself in the trees, 

 although it occasionally does so. By far its most common prac- 

 tice is to hide away in old stumps, in crevices, and in old barns 

 and similar places. When it does hang in a tree it may be easily 

 mistaken for either a dead leaf or for the fruit. (See Figs, llfi, 

 117, and 118.) 



Personally I have never as yet been quite able to satisfy myself 

 as to the chief enemies of the bats of the eastern part of the 

 United States. Possibly the smaller carnivora may occasionally 

 destroy them, or snakes, and under rare conditions perhaps they 

 may be captured by certain hawks and owls. Man has every 



