14 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 



bat came on board his vessel during the night, and was 

 captured by the seameii. He described it as being of a 

 reddish-brown colour. 



" Here, then, is an instance of the bat being found in the 

 act of traversing the ocean ; but whether blown off the 

 coast, or migrating to more southern latitudes, is a problem 

 which can only be solved by further observations, and an 

 improved acquaintance with the history of this remarkable 

 animal. May we not infer that its route, thus far, had 

 been performed subsequently to the sunset of the previous 

 evening, and that if the animal's course had not been 

 arrested by falling in with the " Warren Brown," it might 

 have continued its flight to the lonely islands of Bermuda, 

 or even to far more distant lands ? 



" That the bat genus does cross the ocean from the shores 

 of America to the Bermudas, I regard as an established 

 fact, proved by the periodical visitations I have already 

 alluded to ; and if further proof of its power of flight 

 should be required, I would refer to the well-authenticated 

 circumstance of a specimen of V. pruinosus having been 

 captured in South Eonaldsha, one of the Orkney Islands, 

 in 1847, as mentioned in the Zoologist of January, 1849, 

 there being no reason to doubt the actual flight of this 

 animal across the Atlantic in the month of September. 



"Now, if an animal so local in its habits as the bat is 

 supposed to be, should be accidentally blown off the 

 American coast, and compelled to wander over the ocean 

 until it reached the Bermudas, one might be led to suppose 

 that the mUd climate of those islauds, with the abundant 

 store of insect food at command,, would be so completeltl 

 congenial with its nature, as to induce the stranger to 



