Flying Squirrel Scluropterus volans (Artist)

He's a dear fairy -- Bat is. And he isn't blind, either. And he has the cutest pug-nose. His mouth is so pink. Flitter-Mice we children sometimes call them -- for they are a little like dear mice with angel wings. Of course, grown-ups would not think that -- but truly, the wing of a bat is a wonderful thing. Now, the sensitive nerves in the wing of a Bat help him to know when objects are near -- and he sails, he does, in between, under and over some things that folks, if they had wings, would bump into. You know of course that bat fairy is a catcher of gnats and mosquitoes. It appears to me that as he sails along his mouth is open -- which of course is an aid in scooping in more insects. Now, the fur of a Bat is soft as silk. Once I had three pet Bats -- Aristotle, Plato and Pliny. Now, this I know -- Bats are not dirty creatures, as some people suppose. It's wonderfully interesting to see how particular Bat fairy is about his personal cleanliness. My pet, Pliny, would take the edges of his wings in his mouth -- the way he went about cleaning them made it seem to me that they were like the rubber tissue the cook at the cook house uses to mending things. Pliny would scratch his head with his hind foot -- too, he would wash his face with the fore part of his wing -- and then lick his wash-cloth clean. I fed my Bats flies, gnats and mosquitoes (which i raised for the purpose in a rain-barrel -- and which was destroyed when discovered by the grown-ups -- as it should have been -- although I didn't think I ought to have quite such a hard spanking for having this mosquito nursery because I learned heaps about the great service Bats are to a community in consuming unlimited quantities of pest mosquitoes). The evening before the mosquito nursery was destroyed Aristotle ate and ate mosquitoes -- until he ate so many that he died. It was because I wrote on his tombstone about dying of the consuming of too many mosquitoes that the grown-ups learned of my securing mosquitoes for his feeding by maintaining a mosquito nursery. (Now, those mosquitoes were screened over so that they escaped not -- but even screened-in mosquitoes for feeding unto Bats come under the condemnation of grown-ups -- and Grandpa explained to me why, so now I understand. Anyway, there are plenty of gnats and flies still at large for the feeding of Pliny and Plato.) It was truly Fairyland way in which I found Plato and Pliny. You see, it was just this way -- I had often fed their mother at my study window. Then several evenings she came and was gone again so quickly. One evening when awaiting her coming I noticed her stopping at a near-by Lilac bush. Quickly I stepped out of the window on the other side -- and in a moment was at this bush. On a branch there hung two darling Baby Bats. You see, baby Bats are born in July, and this was July time. Next evening she came to the window with them clinging to her neck. No, she didn't feed them insects. She cradled them in those soft wings of hers, and they nursed from her breasts. Later, they would eat insects from my hand.