sundown.
Now, if you will only just get home by moondown, 'twill do very well."

MORNINGS AT THE ZOO.

VII.--ABOUT THE BATS.

[Illustration: HEAD OF BARBASTELLE BAT.]

Perhaps none of the inmates of the Zoological Gardens, London, cause
such serious disappointment as the Bats. Indeed, it may fairly be
questioned whether one half of the visitors are aware that the Gardens
contain specimens of these really interesting animals. The fact is, the
creatures do not obtrude themselves upon any person's notice, and those
who do not know their whereabouts, but want to see them, might spend a
day in vainly looking for them, unless they invoked the aid of one of
the keepers. Yet the bats are often enough discovered quite by accident
where they are least expected. Their cages will be found in the
monkey-house, screened from the light by a blind. Raise the blind and
you will observe them hanging by their hind feet, with their wings
wrapped round them like a cloak. They are no doubt asleep, but the
raising of the screen may rouse some of them, who will turn their wee
sharp noses and bright eyes towards the inquisitive stranger, and utter
a little "cheeping" cry of complaint at having their repose disturbed.
Night being the season of their activity, the bats do not favourably
impress the casual visitor. After the Gardens have closed, however, they
get more lively, though the smallness of their domicile prevents them
from flying. They crawl about their cages and fight for the titbits of
food. Tame bats may be trained to display some amount of fondness for
their keeper. If set free they will creep about his person and get on to
his shoulder and lick his face like a dog.

Until the time of the illustrious Linnaeus the bats had been more or less
a puzzle both to scientific folk and to common people. The general
notion was that they were a kind of bird with wings of skin, while the
German name for the creature, _Fledermaus_, or fluttering mouse, points
to another opinion that they were neither bird nor beast, but a mixture
of both. Other delusions remained in force up to a recent period. "Blind
as a bat," is an old saying so much the reverse of fact, that it is not
easy to explain how it ever obtained currency among people who had seen
the animal. So far from being afflicted with blindness, they are, says
Mr. Dallas, "furnished with very efficient eyes, although, in most
cases, these are little bead-like organs, very unlike the