CHAPTER VL 
PARENTAL AND EARLY INSTINCTS. 
Under this heading I have put together several 
notes from my journals on subjects which have no 
connection with each other, except that they relate 
chiefly to the parental instincts of some animals I 
have observed, and to the instincts of the young 
at a very early period of life. 
While taking bats one day in December, I cap- 
tured a female of our common Buenos Ayrean 
species (Molossus bonariensis), with her two 
young attached to her, so large that it seemed 
incredible she should be able to fly and take insects 
with such a weight to drag her down. The young 
were about a third less in size than the mother, so 
that she had to carry a weight greatly exceeding 
that of her own body. They were fastened to her 
breast and belly, one on each side, as when first 
born ; and, possibly, the young bat does not change 
its position, or move, like the young developed 
opossum, to other parts of the body, until 
mature enough to begin an independent life. 
On forcibly separating them from their parent, I 
found that they were not yet able to fly, but when 
set free fluttered feebly to the ground. This bat 
certainly appeared more burdened with its young 
