50 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



little captive alive, as it still ignored the mealworms, even when 

 they crawled over its face and wings. On Dec. 5th I fastened a 

 moth's wing to half a mealworm, and moved it about just in front 

 of the Bat's nose. This ruse succeeded admirably ; the Bat 

 made a dash at the imitation moth, and speedily devoured the 

 mealworm. From that time it took the mealworms readily, and 

 soon learned to look for them if I held my finger-tips near its 

 face. I fed it nearly every day, and for so small a creature it had 

 an enormous appetite. On one occasion, although it had eaten 

 seven mealworms on the previous evening, it ate, between two 

 and eight o'clock, eight mealworms, a large spider, and six 

 S. dubitata ; after which it merely snapped at the moths, but 

 would not eat them. During the ensuing night, however, it ate 

 seven more moths which I had left with it under the bell-jar. 

 On another evening it ate two fragments of raw rabbit, seven 

 mealworms, one S. dubitata, and two thick-bodied moths (Gono- 

 ptera libatrix). On Dec. 28th the Bat appeared to be in good 

 health, and ate seven mealworms. I did not feed it on the 29th, 

 and on the morning of the following day it was hanging as though 

 asleep, except that its legs were straight instead of flexed ; but, on 

 touching it, I found that it was dead. 



The Bat bit me viciously when I took it from the roof of the 

 tunnel and warmed it in my hand, but it never showed any temper 

 subsequently, and in a few days had become absurdly tame. It 

 evinced little disposition for flight, especially after feeding, and 

 if compelled to take wing would, after one or two turns round the 

 room, drop on to the floor, or pitch on a curtain, chair, or my 

 head or body. When settling on a vertical surface it used to 

 pitch head upwards, then quickly shuffle round and hang sus- 

 pended by its toes in a convenient position for taking wing again. 

 It could rise from a flat surface by making a sudden spring up- 

 wards and expanding its wings immediately. Although loth to 

 fly, it seemed never tired of running about among the papers and 

 other objects on the table, and was seldom stationary unless it 

 was eating. The bell-jar in which I kept it was raised above a 

 stand on supports rather more than J in., or, to be exact, just 

 7 mm. in height, and whenever the perforated zinc guard was 

 removed from the intervening space the Bat would creep out at 

 once. The bright light of the lamp on my table seemed to cause 



