'It is unfortunate that the average person
has a deep prejudice against the bat. Without looking or thinking
for himself, he accepts a lot of absurd tales about the winged
one, and passes them on and on, never caring for the injustice he
does or the pleasure he loses.
The bat is the climax of creation in many things, highly developed
in brain, marvelously keen in senses, clad in exquisite fur, and
equipped, above all, with the crowning glory of flight.
He is the prototype and the realization of the Fairy of the Wood
we loved so much as children, and so hated to be robbed of by
grown-ups who should have known better. I would give a good deal
to have a bat colony where I could see it daily and would go a
long way to meet some new kind of bat.'
Ernest Thomas Seton, Wild
Animal Ways, 1923