ZOOLOGY. 15 



become a permanent resident in its new abode, and relin- 

 quish altogether the desire of repeating what to many may- 

 appear a dangerous and fatiguing flight over the waters of 

 the Atlantic. Such, however, is not the case ; the bat 

 visitors disappearing, as already stated, about the end of 

 December. "Whither they go I am not prepaired to say, 

 though I am inclined to believe that they continue their 

 course to the southward. This simple fact appears to 

 me to set at rest the supposition of bats being acci- 

 dentally blown off the American coast. Is not the cause 

 or impulse which dictates this departure from- the shores of 

 Bermuda, of the same mysterious character as that which 

 influences the periodical migration of the feathered tribes ? 



" I have spoken of the autumnal appearance of the bat, 

 because at that season of the year only is it generally to 

 be met with in Bermuda. On two occasions only have I 

 observed a deviation from this rule, the first on the 23rd of 

 April, 1849, when two of these creatures appeared, busy 

 on the wing over a secluded pond in Paget's parish, one of 

 which I shot ; the s'econd on the I7th of March, 1852, 

 when a solitary V. pruinosus was met with in the Pem- 

 broke marshes. As these observations were made in the 

 spring, when many of the feathered tribe are moving on 

 their northern flight, and when, in the former case, several 

 species had actually reached the islands, it became a 

 problem in my own mind, whether the bats might not also 

 be travelling in the same direction. 



"The bat is by no means a common animal in the Ber- 

 mudas. In some years it is rarely seen, in other seasons it 

 is more common. I have met with several of the native 

 inhabitants who had never seen one. 



