Yet that erratic movoraent is one of the important hahits of Isats, for it xs 

 done in catching insects on the vving. 



Insects, Mr. Bailey tells me, fom the entire food supply of otir 

 northern bats. None of the fruit-eating bats or the olood- sacking vam- 

 pires of the Tropics reach the borders of the United S^Jates. In fact, Mr. 

 Bailey has concluded from his studies that the bats we have in this coun- 

 try are almost as essential to successful agriculture as are the birds, so 

 beneficial are they in destroying crop Insects. 



With birds working in the daytice ajid bats trklng care of •^""* 

 sects on the night shift, we certainly hxre valuable h2lp in our ^ 

 gainst the insects. Many of the night-f jjlng insects, especially moths anci 

 beetles, are not easily found by the dayll^t birds, and the importance oi 

 bats in keeping a check on the increase o:' many destructive groups of in- 

 sects, Mr. Bailey says, is beyond calculation. 



TIThen you reali ze that those tiny eye*; of the bat are probably HtUe 

 or no help in its swift insect hunts, you btgin to realize how wonderluliy 

 sensitive the big ears and the wide escpans-* of sensitive wing membranes 

 must be to enable a bat to catch insects on the wing. 



Yet so successful are these hunts that a bat brought down even a few 

 minutes after it has come out of hiding is usially well filled with insects, 

 ind a bat seems to keep up its hunt throughout^ much of the night. 



I say "a bat" and most of us probably miink of bats in ones and 

 twos and threes. But Mr. Bailey tells me that in many localities there 

 are many more bats than there are insectivorous \>irds. When you run across 

 a lone bat lianging upside down in the attic, it Is hard to picture the caves 

 with walls and ceilings literally covered with hitdreds of thousands and 

 even millions of bats. 



l£r. Bailey studied a colony living in the ^reat Carlsbad Cave in 

 Hew Mexico, where millions of bats have roosted utuV'r a great arched roof 

 of rock for ages. Early in autumn they gather in V4st r.;:'nbers^ for winter 

 sleep. Then in eeirly spring they walce up and start ^mt on their nightly 

 hunts for insects. Mr. Boilcy saw about 12,000 leaving the cavc one evening, 

 and he figures that those vjere just the summer boarder's and not the main 

 colony. The summer before, some folks reported that the bats came out each 

 evening in a black cloud visible two miles away and kt^^t poui'ing out of the 

 50-foot throut of the cave for two hours. There must \ave been literally 

 millions of them. 



¥ell, millions of bats, each bat snapping up ins'^^.ts all throiigh the 

 ni^t, nust account for a tremendous number of insects. Bats that Mr, Bailey 

 kept in his cabin seemed to live comfortably on the numerous big gray "candle 

 moths" there, Fortunately, bats are neither edible nor (Ornamental, nor is 

 any money value likely to be a^^tached to them in a way thft vdll help to 

 erberminate any of the different species. So this night -.'orce of insect 

 eaters will go right on helping us, even though some peop-iC do continue to 

 have fits of terror every time one of these helpful little night workers 

 flits across their si^t. 



That may be only a mother bat with her young clingi:vg to her while 

 she turns and darts through the air in her search for food. Yes, sir, lir. 



