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Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
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period of 70 years or less, after the year of the author's death.
If it is under copyright in your country of residence,
do not download or redistribute this file.
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RGL e-Book Cover
Based on an image created with Microsoft Bing software
A MOUSE on wings. That is the popular idea of a bat, and the proof is the little creature's common name of "flitter-mouse." It is nearly as incorrect as the belief of people in the Middle Ages, who called the poor harmless bat an "unclean bird."
The bat is neither a mouse nor a bird, but a modified order of insect-eating mammalia.
There is no stranger creature alive. The mouse, to which it has been likened, has very strong hind legs and comparatively weak front limbs. With the bat, the case is exactly reversed. The bat's hind legs are tiny, and their only real use is for hanging himself up during rest or sleep. The front legs, on the other hand, are immensely strong, and are provided with four long fingers on which the thin leathery wings are stretched. The shoulder is particularly powerful, and the wings are very large. Indeed, the bat's powers of flight might be envied by many birds. He can keep on the wing, travelling at tremendous speed, for two or three hours at a time, and never show the slightest signs of fatigue.
Bats have fur like that of mice, but finer; they have ears and eyes like ground-dwelling creatures, but their bones are hollow like those of birds. In one particular the bat can beat any other creature—namely, in the sense of touch. He can fly in and out among stretched threads without ever touching them, a1though he is almost blind.
Our little flitter-mouse was born in a dark hollow beneath the eaves of an old Devonshire barn. He was the only son of his mother, for bats, unlike many other creatures, usually produce only one young one at a time.
An uglier creature than this young bat you would go far to find. He was quite hairless and naked, blind and altogether helpless. Yet from the first his wings were perfect.
It was, however, some weeks before he used them. All the earlier part of his life he spent clinging to his mother by means of the two odd little hooks with which his wings were provided. So, in perfect safety, he was borne swiftly to and fro through the dusk, while his mother hawked up and down the orchard catching her nightly supper.
IT was about ten days before he could open his eyes; it was another fortnight before he began to use his wings.
The first thing he learned to do was to catch food for himself. All flies come alike to the bat, but his preference is for the night-flying moths.
Our bat had to learn to catch them. Just as every other young creature has to learn to capture its food, and the same experience befell him which has proved the end of many a young bat.
In his first attempt to seize a fluttering moth, he missed it, upset altogether, and went fluttering helplessly to the ground. Now a bat on the ground is almost as helpless as a fish out of water. A bird can hop or jump upwards, and so gain wing power, but a bats hind legs are too weak to lift his weight. So all that he can do is to crawl slowly forwards until he can gain the edge of a bank or some little height from which he can launch himself forth into the air.
Lucky indeed for little flitter-mouse that there was no prowling cat at hand, no stoat or weasel. Had there been, his first fall would have been his last. With great difficulty he managed to creep upon a log, and regain the use of his wings.
Within a week he became almost as strong on the wing and as skilful in capturing prey as his mother herself.
His hours for hunting were from an hour after sunset until 10 or 11 at night. On fine, warm nights it did not take long to fill his small stomach, for then the soft air was alive with winged things. But on wet or windy evenings he and his family would be abroad till late before a good meal was secured. If it were always daylight, bats would starve. They cannot bear the fierce glare of sunlight, for it blinds them.
ALL the Summer long he thrived and grew, until by Autumn he was as large and strong on the wing as his father. The day was spent suspended motionless in the dark corner under the caves.
There was good hunting in September, but early in October came a cold gale, and after that it was difficult to get a full meal. Towards the end of the month he and his family turned in for their Winter sleep.
Suspended in their dark, warm corner, they hung utterly motionless. The temperature of their blood fell, they did not seem to breathe, all their bodily functions were suspended, and to any casual observer they seemed to be dead things.
Yet when there came a warm spell just before Christmas, one and all awoke. They stirred, combed their fur, and fluttered out to seek food. But a few midges were all that they could find, and soon they were back again, to sink once more into that strange, trance-like state.
At last came April, with its bursts of warm sun, and out went little flitter-mouse to feed once more, and to find a bride to bring back to the old home where he and his had lived for countless generations.
Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
Go to Home Page
This work is out of copyright in countries with a copyright
period of 70 years or less, after the year of the author's death.
If it is under copyright in your country of residence,
do not download or redistribute this file.
Original content added by RGL (e.g., introductions, notes,
RGL covers) is proprietary and protected by copyright.