The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-22
timer reason dye want7 Besides, didn't fail as bad as I might might have mad th' speech"
BATS HAVE A STRANGE SENSE.
Function of Touch is 70 HighIy Devei oped That the Little Flyers Need
 Little Eyeafght.s

oped That the Little Flyers Need Little Eyesight.
 London Nature.
 The largest of our common English
 bats is the noctule. Its wings meas ure nearly fourteen there's across. and it flies high and swiftly. Bats lead a life of strenuous bodily energy. alter hating with periods of suspended anil nation more or less complete. which perhaps saves them from being physf- cal wrecks. Even their daily sleep of- ten resembles hibernat ton. Frequent ly the bodily functions are almost en- tlrely suspended. Instead of remain ing warm, sensitive and partly senti- ent, as a child is in dreams, the bats temperature drops as it passes into ob- livion; it's wings. completely folded over it's body, wrap it in death-like and dusky shroud, its breathing al-
 most stops. and 1t is to all appearances dead. Pick it up and its heart seems once more to beat. It gasps, opens its mouth, sucks the air into it's lungs, and in few minutes it passes from death-like sleep to intense life. vora- clous hunger and a peevish. snapping energy.
 The Iong-eared bat soon becomes really tame, But the noctule is never amiable, though 1t may become non- 1~r~-@ flew into room where the present writer was sleeping, where its squeaks. | Tapping and struggles made sleep in- possible. When entangled in a bath | towel, and then captured in a welIv gloved hand. its fury was curious to
 see. It showed no fear, only passion. shrieking. barring its sharp white teeth. struggling forward to bite. and seiz- | ing everything that came within reach. | T., ayA AZ Ia &s .xfst. | lighter than in colder weather. Many | of the bats which suspend themselves when sleeping cover their bodies so completely with their wings that they resemble very closely the pendent CO., coons of the large tropical moths, one | or both sides of which are attached to leaves. This Is especially the case with the lesser horseshoe bat, whose wings not only cover it as 1t hangs.
 but are so arranged as to shoot on wa ter without wetting It's body The long, cared bat puts itself to bed in wraps, not only of It's own wings. but supplemented by the folding of it's own enormous ears This little British mammal, the body of which is only two inches long from the tip Of the nose to the base of the tail, has the largest ears, in proportion to It's size- of any animal in the world. They are an inch and a half and three-duarters of an inoh broad, and when their own CT proposes to go to sleep 1t bends them outward and then backward folding them down on, each side of its head and shoulders before bringing up the wings to cover it's sides, When walking up 1t is quite business for the little bat to get It's tall ears straightened out and into position again. They remain for some time at half cock.'' and then are gradually set up and erected. to serve the arit- nal while awake.
 In proportion to the size of the, bats, the moths and beetles seized and eaten by them are somtimes large. The noctule, in captivity. will eat cock
 reaches and crickets, as well as chaf- CTS and dorbeetles. They will cnase and catch the large poplar hawk
 moth, and these are devoured while the
 bat goes on flying. To aid them in securing large prey most bats possess l an apparatus on the use of which Mir.
 Millais lays great stress. They have a tail ,and on each side of this be- tween the wings. Is a membrane like
 third wing-or' tail made into a kite. When 1t chooses the bat bends this under the body and converts 1t from a parachute wing into a pouch. If |
 which struggles, 1t pushes 1t down in-
 to sack, bending its head under the body. It then fixes It's teeth more firm l ly in the victim, drags 1t out and eats it. When a flock of noctules are feeding on chafers, quite a shower of heads and wings and wing cases descend from the air in which these
 ravenous little harpies are at work.
 The voracity is astonishing. A bat
 will eat It's own weight in food in twenty-four hours. and would proba- bly di6 of starvation if under for two days. If sent by rail without food even for a day, they are frequently
 dead from exhaustion when they ar
 rive. Though most of the other bats
 capture their prey in the air, the long,
 cared bat hunts a different manner.
 Mir. MofGat and Mr. Millais both agree
 that 1t catches It's prey sitting"
 MT, Moffat says; 'Tt threads its way
 with a beautiful facility among the
 twigs and leaves, often seeming rath-
 CT to swim than to fly. so slight is the
 visible movement of the wings. Pois-
 ing,, at times, like a humming bird.
 it appears to- be picking something
 from the leaves. At other times 1t
 plunges into the middle of spray
 and remains for some seconds cling
 ing to the twigs. no doubt securing
 or eating some insect" Mir. MiIlais
 has seen it hawking in and out among
 violets and pansies in q flower hed.
 All bats are thirsty creatures, lihe
 Daubenton's bats, drinking as swal-
 lows drink as they fly over pools,
 while others suck moisture where they
 can, (of a paint brush, for instance, if kept prisoners,) or lap water like q
 cat. They are also good swimmers.
 using their wings as paddles; but
 their progress when walking is slow,
 as most species can only drag them
 rI Atr hafR