We were all sitting in the parlor one evening last summer when in flew
a creature through the open window. Bump--bump, he went against the
wall and ceiling.
"A bat! a bat!" shrieked aunt Mary, and ran behind the door. Mamma
jumped up into a chair and gathered her skirts about her, just as
though it were a mouse. Grace and Mabel ran out of the Room, while
papa and Frank and Kate chased the bat.
The poor little bat fluttered about, and almost fell into the kerosene
lamp chimney. Then he got entangled in the window draperies. You know
a bat cannot see by a light any more than an owl can. He finally
tumbled behind the sofa where papa caught him.
Mamma then got down from the chair, aunt Mary came out from behind the
door, Grace and Mabel ventured in, and we all gathered about and
looked at the bat. How he panted!
"Think of being afraid of such a little creature as that," said Kate
scornfully.
"But he bites," said Grace. "Doesn't he, papa?"
"I don't think he would bite," said papa. "He's a good deal more
frightened than you were."
"What made him fly into the window then?" asked Grace.
"He is out after insects," replied papa. "He was dazzled by the light
from the window, and flew towards it, as all half-blind creatures
will."
Our little bats, the bats that live in cool countries, do not harm any
one. But there is a big bat, called the Vampire bat, that will do a
good deal of mischief, if he can get a chance.
The Vampire bat lives in the tropics. It is very comfortable, sleeping
out of doors, in the tropics.
A traveller will oftentimes swing his hammock on a tree, and sleep in
it all night. But he must be careful, and not sleep too soundly.
For a Vampire bat may find him; and if he does, he will bite the
traveller's toe and suck his blood; and when the traveller wakes in
the morning, he will feel weak and faint from loss of blood.
A bat does not perch, and tuck his head under his wing, and sleep like
a bird. He has some hooks on his wings, and he just hangs himself up
by those, and that's the way he sleeps!