40 
The Young Folks. 
NATURE STUDIES. 
BATS. 
‘One of the strangest pets of which I 
ever heard belonged to a. friend of mine. 
Tt was a Long-eared Bat, which had been 
startled by the gardener’s boy from her 
sleep in the ivy,. and caught by. him as 
she darted out, of her hiding-place into 
the glare of day. : 
The gardener’s boy—his name was 
Jim, and he had the most curious col- 
lection of small animals. you could 
imagine in the, loft in. which he slept— 
put. her into, a spacious cage that had 
once been inhabited by white rats, and 
proceeded to,tame her. ; ee 
. I have no idea how he did it, but 
before a month was over she would come 
at his call and eat flies. out of his hand. 
During the day she slept, hanging on to 
one of the cage bars, head downwards, by 
her toes, of which she had five. on each 
foot, each armed, with sharp, hooked 
claws. Her wonderful wings were folded 
close about her, and though sometimes 
she would stir slightly if Jim addressed 
her, she never fully woke until evening 
came. ,, 
Jim grew too old to be ‘ gardener’s 
boy’ any longer, and was promoted to a 
better post near a large town. A few of 
his pets he took with him, but most of 
them were distributed in the village he 
was leaving. On his last morning he 
came up to say gooa-bye to my friend, 
and, very red and shamefaced, asked her 
if she would be so kind as to accept the 
present of his bat, Jennie.’ j 
If she had not been afraid of hurting 
his feelings she would have refused, but 
his anxious face made that impossible, 
and Jennie and her cage were installed 
in a little sitting-room under the eaves, 
(We found out afterwards that he had 
offered her in turn to all his companions, 
but that each had refused to take charge 
of ‘such a queer creature.’) It was’some 
time before Jennie would have anything 
to say to her new friend, and we used. to 
fancy there was a baleful look: in her 
bright eyes as she gazed at us when we 
fed her, as though she thought we had 
spirited Jim away. After a while she 
grew quite friendly, and would make the 
peculiar little sound of recognition she 
had always kept for Jim. Every evening 
the door of her cage was opened, and sho 
would fly gaily about the room, dodging 
in and out among the chairs and tables 
and chattering to herself. When it was 
time to feed her would hang herself on to 
the edge‘of my bookcase, opening ‘and 
shutting her mouth like some mechanical 
toy. Spiders and beetles were her 
favorite dainties, and it used to make us 
feel quite ill to hear her scrunch them 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
up. Nothing would: persuade her to eat 
meat, though some bats will, and when- 
ever we offered her anything she did not 
care for she would ‘spit and shake her 
head, for all the world like’a naughty 
child. 
My friend had had her for nearly a 
year when she escaped one night through 
the open window We thought we had 
seen the last of ‘her, for we knew there 
was an owl’s nest in the ivy that covered 
the old clock tower; and‘ owls are deadly 
enemies to bats. - 
left open’ every evening,’ and we hoped 
against hope that she would return. On 
the third evening something flew in 
suddenly and settled on my friend’s 
shoulder ; it'was Jennie, who had fixed’ 
her claws in the laces at her throat and 
was hanging very still as though 
exhausted. ° 
Presently she flew to the edge of the 
bookcase, and we fed her as usual, not 
noticing at first that anything was the 
matter. : When the lamp came in, 
however, we - saw what had _hap- 
pened—the wicked old owl had torn her 
eyes out, and though poor Jennie had 
escaped she was quite blind. 
The extraordinary thing was that it 
seemed to make no difference to her so 
far as flight was concerned. She darted 
about the room as usual, moving round, 
the vases and frames on shelves and. 
mantelpiece with great adroitness, never 
once displacing them. 
called her she would fly to her at once, 
avoiding anything in her way as if she 
could see as well as ever. : 
And now I am going to tell you why. 
just now, I said her wings were ‘ wonder- 
ful’ Instead of being covered with 
feathers, as birds’ are, they are composed 
ofathin and widely expanded sheet of 
membrane stretched over and between 
their curious limbs, which support them 
in much the same way that the ribs of 
an umbrella support the silk that covers 
it, The membrane is supplied—as well 
as the membranous tissues. of the ears 
and nose—with the most exquisitely 
sensitive nerves which gave to bats their 
marvellous sense of touch. In some way 
we cannot understand. bats ‘feel’ an 
obstacle before they reach it; our poor 
blind Jennie would pass through narrow 
spaces, without. touching either side, as 
cleverly as if she still possessed her sight, 
and we never knew her to mistake a 
distance. © 
The end of Jennie was very sad. For 
a few weeks aiter her terrible adventure 
she stayed at home, but when the 
summer evenings came the green woods 
called her, and she left us again. We 
found her body outside: the old clock 
tower—there had been uo. escape from 
the ‘owl this time. 
Bats are nocturnal creatu es, and are 
found in almost every corner of the 
globe, though they are most. plentiful in 
warm climates. © They are not all so 
harmless as Long-eared or Common Bats, 
and in South America there is a horrible 
Vampire Bat which it makes one’s flesh 
But the window was’ 
If her mistress’ 
February 1, 1909 
creep to hear of. He has keen, sharp, 
teeth, which quickly pierce the skin of 
his victim, and fixes himself upon it 
silently. sucking its life blood from it 
while it sleeps. Mr Darwin tells us how, 
when bivouacking late one evening near 
Coquimbo, in Chili, his” servant noticed 
that his horse was very restive, and found 
a Vampire upon its back. Horses and 
mules and catte are sometimes bitten 
upon thee r, and so much blood is taken 
from them that they often die from ex- 
haustion; fowls: are attacked on their 
crests and wattles, and die from gangrene 
of the wound. 
But there is worse to come. Unless 
the nativee of Maranham (amongst other 
places) are very careful in covering thein- 
selves up at night, these Vampires fasten 
on their feet while they are sound in 
slumber. Their bite is very small—the 
wound is scarcely larger than the head 
of a pin— but unless the sleeper wakes it 
will go very badly withhim. Europeans, 
too, are sometimes bitten, anda Captain 
Stedman narrowly escaped with his. 
life. , 
If there were time there is much that I: 
should like to tell you about the Horse- 
Shoe Bais and the curious, Kalongs. 
These latter are inhabitants of Jaya; the 
upp.r part of their necks is .smoky red, 
the rest of. their fur.a dead dull. black, 
The damage they do amongst fruit and 
cocoanut trees’is enormous, and many are 
the . contrivances used. by the native 
princes and English colonists, to protect 
their harvests, Daring the daytime the 
Kalongs hang on the branches of trees in 
hundreds, and if disturbed, utter piercing 
shrieks that are most alarming. 
—Our Jabberwock. 
—SSE SSS 
Conundrums. 
When does a man snffer from water on. 
the brain ? 
When he gets a notion (an ocean) into. 
his head. ; ‘ 
When does the human tongue resemble. 
a town in China ? Shields 7 
“When it’s Pekin (speaking) 
Why is a beehive like a.spectator? 
Because it’s a beeholder. ; 
When is butter like Irish children ?.. 
When it’s in the shape of little pats. 
When is a man most wooden ? 
When he’s a great deal bored. -. 
Why is the grass 
than yourself ? 
. Because it is pasturage. 
you walk.on, older 
vi 
( sseeenimnhiniiisieniahiemeeemarmentemmmnisesne ese eet 
‘Now,’ said a teacher who was giving a 
lesson in grammar, ‘ can anyone give mea 
: : ‘ > 4 ‘ 2 
word ending with ‘ous,’ meaning ‘full of, 
as in’ ‘dangerous’—‘full of danger’—and 
‘ hazardous’—‘full of hazard’ ?? 
There was silence in .the class for a. 
moment. Lhen a boy put out his hand. 
‘ Please, sir, ‘ pious’—‘ full of pie.’’ 
