The Chorus of the Forest 



wonderful little creature, half bird, half beast. 

 The poet Street wrote of it as "a wavering, sound- 

 less blot." A bat in the face is considered just 

 and sufficient cause for convulsions, yet the ^\'orst 

 that possibly could result fi'oni it would be a tiny 

 scratch of a bite, not nearly so annoying as that 

 of a mosquito. 



Once 1 had a face-to-face acquaintance with a 

 mother bat whose body bore the weight of three 

 young that nursed at her breast and clung to her Bat 

 while they slei:)t. She had a very small face, Biog- 

 shaped like that of a young pig, except that the 

 ears were round instead of pointed. The male 

 must have carried food, or else enough insects to 

 sustain life flew her way, for she coidd not carry 

 her burden on wing. With the exception of flight, 

 I could not discover one attribute or characteristic 

 of the feathered tribe. Her wings were not in 

 the least birdlike. They resembled the half of a 

 spread umbrella having a thin rubber cover. Each 

 wing represented four ribs and three sections of 

 cover, and these ribs centered in a joint like the 

 long, bony fingers of a hand, with a little sharp 

 hook of a thumb, by which the bat clung and 

 helped bear her weight. She slept head down and 

 was liveliest at night. Her fur was silken soft 

 and fine, and of beautiful red-brown color. "When 

 fed milk with a small wooden paddle I could see 

 her fine sharp teeth, but she did not offer to bite. 



123 



