Lesson LIX

The Bat

Leading thought—Although the bat’s wings are very different from those of the bird’s yet it is a rapid and agile flier. It flies in the dusk and catches great numbers of mosquitoes and other troublesome insects, upon which it feeds.

Method—This lesson should not be given unless there is a live bat to illustrate it; the little creature can be cared for comfortably in a cage in the schoolroom, as it will soon learn to take flies or bits of raw meat when presented on the point of a pencil or toothpick. Any bat will do for this study, although the little brown bat is the one on which my observations were made.

Observations—1. At what time of day do we see bats flying? Describe how the bat’s flight differs from that of birds. Why do bats dart about so rapidly?

2. Look at a captive bat and describe its wings. Can you see what makes the framework of the wings? Do you see the three finger bones extending out into the wings? How do the hind legs support the wing? The tail? Is the wing membrane covered with fur? Is it thick and leathery or thin and silky and elastic? How does the bat fold up its wings?

3. In what position does the bat rest? Does it ever hang by his thumb hooks?

4. Can you see whether the knees of the hind legs bend upward or downward? How does the bat act when trying to walk or crawl? How does it use its thumb hooks in doing this?

5. What does the bat do daytimes? Where does it stay during the day? Do many bats congregate together in their roosts?

6. Describe the bat’s head, including the ears, eyes, nose and mouth. What is its general expression? Do you think it can see and hear well? How is its mouth fitted for catching insects? Does it shut its mouth while chewing or keep it open? Do you think that bats can see by daylight?

7. What noises does a bat make? How does it act if you try to touch it? Can it bite severely? Can you understand why the Germans call it a flitter-mouse?

8. Do you know how the mother bat cares for her young? How does she carry them? At what time of year may we expect to find them?

9. When making its toilet, how does a bat clean its wings? Its face? Its back? Its feet? Do you know if it is very clean in his habits?

10. How and where do the bats pass the winter? How are they beneficial to us? Are they ever harmful?

Supplementary reading—American Animals, Stone and Cram.

Nature-study should not be unrelated to the child’s life and circumstances. It stands for directness and naturalness. It is astonishing when one comes to think of it, how indirect and how remote from the lives of pupils much of our education has been. Geography still often begins with the universe, and finally, perhaps, comes down to some concrete and familiar object or scene that the pupil can understand. Arithmetic has to do with brokerage and partnerships and partial payments and other things that mean nothing to the child. Botany begins with cells and protoplasm and cryptogams. History deals with political and military affairs, and only rarely comes down to physical facts and to those events that express the real lives of the people; and yet political and social affairs are only the results of expressions of the way in which people live. Readers begin with mere literature or with stories of scenes the child will never see. Of course these statements are meant to be only general, as illustrating what is even yet a great fault in educational methods. There are many exceptions, and these are becoming commoner. Surely, the best education is that which begins with the materials at hand. A child knows a stone before it knows the earth. —L. H. Bailey in “The Nature-Study Idea.”