Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LIX · Topic 7: Wild mammals: bat, skunk, raccoon and fox
59. The bat
Goal: Your child can describe how a bat flies and hunts insects at dusk, and explain that its wing is skin stretched over very long finger bones.
You'll need
- A warm, still summer evening and a place with open sky near trees or water
- A flashlight (for the walk home; keep it pointed at the ground)
- The book's photograph of the little brown bat
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Comstock's story of the little brown bat: its keen eyes and pointed ears, its wing of thin skin stretched between long fingers, the thumb hooks, how it hangs upside down to sleep, cleans itself, carries its young and hunts insects at dusk. Then Lesson LIX with its leading thought, method and ten questions.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Late spring to early fall, starting about 20 minutes after sunset on a warm, calm evening. Good places: over a pond or stream, along the edge of a field or woods, or around a street light where insects gather. Bats sleep through the winter, so this is a summer lesson.
Safety first
Comstock's method says not to give this lesson without a live bat kept in a cage. We do not do that today.
Never touch a bat, alive or dead, even with gloves. Bats can carry rabies. If you find a bat on the ground or inside the house, keep children and pets away and let an adult call the local animal control or health office.
For the close-up questions, use the book's photograph instead.
Keep the big idea in mind
Comstock's "leading thought" is the one idea the lesson is meant to lead to. Read it to yourself now, and save it to share at the end, after your child has looked and answered:
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.
Watch the evening sky
Sit quietly and look up against the pale western sky. Bats show up as small dark shapes that flutter and swerve. Ask:
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?
Write down the time you see the first bat, and count how many you see in ten minutes.
The wing is a hand
Look at the photograph in the book together.
Can you see what makes the framework of the wings? Do you see the three finger bones extending out into the wings?
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?
Have your child spread one hand wide. Comstock says that if a boy's fingers were as long, for his size, as a bat's, they would measure four feet. The thumb stays short and makes a little hook at the front of the wing.
Talk it over
These questions are answered from Comstock's story rather than by watching. Read her paragraphs about the bat's day and the mother bat, then ask:
What does the bat do daytimes? Where does it stay during the day? Do many bats congregate together in their roosts?
How and where do the bats pass the winter? How are they beneficial to us? Are they ever harmful?
Put it into words
Ask your child to tell you how a bat gets its supper. Then read the leading thought aloud and see how much of it your child already said.
Nature notebook
Draw a bat's wing as if it were a hand: the arm, four long fingers, the short thumb hook, and the skin stretched between them and back to the leg. Add the date, the time the first bat appeared, and how many you counted.
Afterwards
Go out on two or three more evenings this month. Does the first bat come out earlier or later as the summer goes on?
Tip
What we know now: Comstock knew that a bat could fly through a room strung with threads without touching one. Today we know how: most bats send out very high squeaks, too high for us to hear, and listen for the echoes to find their way and catch insects in the dark. Their eyesight is good too.