BATS. 
225 
At different times at school I kept two long-eared bats, but 
I have no recollection of any characteristics of theirs that I have 
not observed more carefully since. 
I kept no more bats till August, 1890. Since then till July, 
1894, I have had at different times six common bats and two 
long-eared bats. I have kept a very careful record of their 
lives, from which record I now write down those circumstances 
that I think may interest others besides myself. With one 
exception, all these bats were caught either at Staverton or 
at Dartington near Totnes, during the months of August and 
September. One caught itself on the fly when my father was 
fishing in the evening. Most of them flew into the house at 
night through the open windows. 
Flight. — As soon as the window was closed the bat would 
never attempt to escape by the way it came in. I have never 
known a bat fly against a window or against any obstacle, except 
once in the case of a bat that had been weak and ill for some time, 
and that, by scrambling about the box in which it was kept, had 
worn the web from the fingertips of its wings. In attempting 
to fly it knocked itself against the window twice and also against 
the furniture in the room. It died shortly afterwards. A long- 
eared bat that came into the room by a door that opened 
directly into the garden, flew back — on the door being closed — 
to the lintel — under which, no doubt, a draught came in— and, 
after hovering there for a while, dropped to the key-hole and 
flew backwards and forwards in front of it. A common bat that 
I had had for several weeks I lost through neglecting to notice 
that one of the windows was an inch or two open. The bat 
flew to the upper sash bar of the lower window, and slipped out 
between the panes. I do not think that light or darkness makes 
any difference to their flight. I have let them fly in a room by 
daylight and also at night, with lamps and gas burning. They 
have never gone dangerously near the flame. 
I have seldom had any difficulty in inducing my bats to feed. 
I have often been able to get them to feed from my hand on the 
day on which they were caught, and almost always by the next 
day. 
Food. — I fed them at first on flies, moths and grasshoppers ; 
sometimes feeding them from my fingers, sometimes putting 
the moths, &c., into their box and letting them hunt for them. 
There seemed to be no limit to the number that they would eat. 
I put twenty grasshoppers into the box with the long-eared bat, 
one night ; only the legs remained in the morning. I generally 
gave them their water on a paint brush. 
Towards the end of September it became very difficult to 
provide sufficient food. It fortunately occurred to me that they 
might eat meal worms. The bats took to these readily, and I 
think prefer them to any other kind of food. Since then I 
have fed them almost exclusively on meal worms, any number 
of which can be kept without trouble in bran, meal, or oats. 
