RED AND BLACK BATS. 
Over the houses, in the windows, fluttering everywhere, 
Like Butterflies gigantic, the Bats dive through the air; 
Up and down, hither, thither, round your head and away, 
Look where they wander, coming ever with vanishing day. 
C. C. M. 
BATS are so much alike, especially 
those common to this country, 
of which there are numerous 
species known to naturalists, 
that the description of one will serve 
for all, with the exception' of the 
Vampire. 
The sub-order of smooth-nosed Bats 
is represented in this country by sev- 
eral species peculiar to America. The 
most common in all the Atlantic coast 
states is the Red Bat, or New York 
Bat, which is a busy hunter of flying 
insects, which it follows so persistently 
that it frequently flies into rooms in 
pursuit of its favorite prey. It flies 
rather slowly, but it changes the direc- 
tion of its flight very rapidly, and its 
movements in the air are very graceful. 
Besides this species is the Black Bat, 
and several others have been observed 
and described, but so far the descrip- 
tions, according to Brehm, have been 
principally technical, and little or 
nothing is known of their habits, ex- 
cept that no North American species 
seems to be harmful, but the coun- 
trary, as they are all insect-eaters. 
The principal food of these Bats 
consists of Butterflies, Beetles, Mosqui- 
toes, and the like. 
All Bats sleep by day and fly about 
by night. Most of them make their 
appearance at dusk, and retire to their 
hiding-places long before dawn. Some 
species appear between three and five 
o'clock in the afternoon and flicker 
merrily about in the bright sunshine. 
Each species has its own hunting- 
grounds in forests, orchards, avenues, 
and streets, and over stagnant or slowly 
flowing water-surfaces. It is said to 
be rare that they fly over open fields, 
for the reason that there is no game 
for them. In the South they haunt the 
rice fields, where insects are numerous. 
Their hunting - ground is limited, 
although some large species will cover 
a mile in their flight, and the Bats of 
the tropics fly over much greater dis- 
tances. 
Bats are in general very much averse 
to the ground, and never voluntarily 
place themselves on a level surface. 
Their method of walking is very cu- 
rious. First the forelegs or wings are 
thrust forward, hooking the claw at its 
extremity over any convenient pro- 
jection, or burying it in the ground. 
By means of this hold the animals 
draw themselves forward, then raising 
their bodies partly off the earth ad- 
vance the hind-leg, making at the same 
time a tumble forward. The process 
is then repeated on the opposite side,, 
and thus they proceed in a strange and 
unearthly fashion, tumbling and stag- 
gering along as if their brains were 
reeling. 
It has long been known that Bats 
are able to thread their way among 
boughs of trees and other impediments 
with an ease that seems almost beyond 
the power of sight. Even utter dark- 
ness does not apparently impede their 
progress, for when shut up in a dark- 
ened room, in which strings had been 
stretched in various directions, they 
still pursued their course through the 
air, avoiding every obstacle with pre- 
cision. This faculty has been found 
not to result from any unusual keen- 
ness of sight, but from the exquisite 
nervous system of their wings. 
171 
