Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/56

46 is of a dusky grey hue, paler on the belly, with ears more than twice as long as the head, and nearly as long as the head and body together. Like the preceding, it is active on the ground, but has a different mode of proceeding. "In crawling or walking along a horizontal surface, it has the anterior part of the body considerably elevated above the ground, and its progression is effected by a succession of abrupt impulses or leaps of one. side after the other; whilst the Pipistrelle, which never raises the head from near the ground, runs along in an almost prostrate position, but with much celerity and freedom."

Timid as the Bats are, gentleness will render them confiding and familiar. The present species is active and playful in confinement, and may readily be trained to take a fly from the hand. Mr. Bell speaks of one which, "when at liberty in the parlour, would fly to the hand of any of the young people who held up a fly towards it, and pitching on the hand, take the fly without hesitation. If the insect were held between the lips, the Bat would then settle on its young patron’s cheek, and take the fly with great gentleness from the mouth: and so far was this familiarity carried, that when either of my young friends made a humming noise with the mouth in imitation of an insect, the Bat would search about the lips for the promised dainty."

None of our native Bats are in any respect injurious to man; but on the other hand, as the destroyers of numberless insects which in one stage or other are noxious, we cannot but consider them as absolute benefactors.