s made of delicate bones which are covered
with a thin skin. The skin contains numerous little sense organs dotted
over its surface, which give the bat his strange power.

Bats look more like mice than they do like birds, and they are sometimes
called flittermice. But they are mammals, and the young are fed with
milk by the mother, just as a cow feeds her calf. There is no danger
that a bat will ever fly against you in the dark; for they can avoid all
mishap even when their eyes are put out. They have special sense organs
that tell them when they are nearing an object, and can fly at headlong
speed with the accuracy of a rifle bullet directly into a small opening.
This power is all due to the mysterious sense located in their wings and
ears, which causes even man to consider his senses weak in comparison.

Bats are sociable creatures and huddle together and sleep in vast
numbers during the day, but when night comes on they come forth for
their nocturnal travels and sport by the millions. I have seen them
leaving caves just at dusk in such numbers as to look like one immense
volume of smoke, twenty to thirty feet wide, and lasting for more than
five minutes. Mrs. Bat often takes her babies with her on these nightly
travels. I found one with two young clinging to her breast. How they
must enjoy these lovely trips!

There are many kinds and varieties of bats, ranging in size from the
flying foxes of the tropical world, with wings five feet in length, to
the wood bat of North America, which is not over six inches long. These
interesting friends of man are his greatest scavengers of the air. They
are doing much to check the mosquitoes throughout the regions of the
world, and in more civilized communities man makes shelters for them,
that they may eradicate mosquitoes.

XIII

ANIMAL SCAVENGERS AND CRIMINALS

_"A warning from these pages take,
And know this truth sublime--
Each creature is a criminal
When he commits a crime."_

No more remarkable creatures exist in the animal world than those that
play the role of Nature's scavengers and criminals. They are as numerous
and varied in their methods of working as they are interesting. The only
things they have in common are their profession and their appetites. As
individuals they are ugly, unattractive and apparently void of
personality and charm. Nevertheless, they have an important part to play
in the scheme of things.

One of the most noted o