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AimOUNCIMENT: A^ain we tvrn to Uncle Sam»s Naturalists of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. Again -.we catch on the wing a few facts 

 about outdoor life. This time it is a wild night life which you may no- 

 tice most any spring night — 



If you want to do a little original research in the ways of the 

 wild, here is a suhject for you: Bats* 



Mr. Vernon Bailey, of the United States Biological Survey, tells 

 me that we know prohahly leas ahout bats than about almost any other order 

 of animals. He suggests that close and patient study of bat colonies, of 

 groups of bats, or ^en of single bats fo\md roosting in accessible places 

 might repay you with some new and useful information, 



TOiat we do know has been largely picked up by studying individ-ual 

 bats seen flitting about at twilight and arotmd camp fires at night or oc- 

 casionally fluttering into lighted rooms through the open windows. Some- 

 thing of the habits of bats has also been learned by examining specimens 

 shot down during the early evenings, or found hanging head downward from the 

 roofs of caves or dark attics, or tucked away in hollow walls or under boards 

 or the bark of trees. 



Many people seem to have a horror of bats. When a bat comes in, 

 they get out and get out quickly. To them a bat is a darting terror. Of 

 course, no one in this audience has that eerie feeling at sight of a bat, 

 None of you even picture bats as attendant on vdtches and ghosts and hob- 

 goblins. It is little wonder that those notions got started. Here is a fly- 

 ing mammal glimpsed ordinarily only at night. By day, it is gone, often dis- 

 appearing completely, as if the earth had swallowed it up. And, literally 

 that is what has happened in many cases, for many of our bats are cave 

 dwellers. Others hide away in clefts of the rocks, in dark places in build- 

 ings or trees, or under cover of dense foliage. 



Then another characteristic of bats to which they probably owe a good 

 bit of their awesomeness is that sudden turning and darting while in flight. 



