52 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Bat thrust its head, and was thereby enabled to get a firmer grip 

 of its prey without any danger of dropping it. When the Bat was 

 on a flat surface the lower side of this pouch was pressed closer 

 to its belly than would be the case during flight, so that it some- 

 times failed to get its head into the pouch, and let a mealworm 

 drop. When this was the case it never made any attempt to 

 seize its prey again, and the mealworm would escape by crawling 

 out from beneath its wings or tail. When the Bat was sus- 

 pended, however, the bag was wide open, and the insect never 

 escaped. Experience seemed to teach it that the mealworms 

 were incapable of escape by flight, and latterly it did not always 

 thrust its head into the interfemoral pouch after seizing one, but 

 devoured it without this preliminary. In a free state Bats, 

 capturing the greater part, if not all, of their food on the wing, 

 must often fail to grip large insects securely at the first bite, and 

 it would be a manifest advantage to have some means of adjusting 

 their hold without alighting. An insect accidentally dropped 

 during flight could hardly be recovered, and would probably be 

 abandoned without further thought, as was the case when my 

 Whiskered Bat dropped a mealworm. A Long-eared Bat which 

 I kept for a few days invariably thrust its head into the inter- 

 femoral pouch on seizing a moth. Both Long-eared and 

 Whiskered Bats have the tail curved beneath them during flight, 

 although they are usually figured with it held straight behind 

 them ; and I have little doubt that when on the wing they actually 

 use the method I have described for securing their prey. Further 

 observation will probably show that this curious habit is common 

 to all our British species, with the possible exception of the 

 Horseshoe Bats, in which the interfemoral membrane is com- 

 paratively small, and the tail, during repose at any rate, is carried 

 in a very different way. 



Having firmly secured its prey, whether moth or mealworm? 

 by the head or tail, my Whiskered Bat used to swallow it length- 

 wise, crunching it thoroughly by rapid movements of the jaws as 

 it slowly disappeared. Neither foot nor carpus was ever used in 

 any way to assist it in capturing or holding an insect. The use 

 of either would of course be quite impossible during flight. 

 Moths and spiders moving near it were pounced upon and cap- 

 tured, but mealworms dissociated from my fingers seemed to 



