Country Life
By IAN NIALL A MAN I know recently moved into a rural housing estate where all the houses are new. There were no old buildings on the site, and only one or two trees, but this summer he found the attic of his house infested with bats. He counted no fewer than seventy-eight of them. His neighbour found that he had bats too. A third party asked my advice on how to get rid of the bats, and I suggested, as a first-aid treatment, the use of burning sulphur. The fumes might drive the bats from the attic. The third party thought for a moment, and remarked, `Will the bats then move into my attic?' I was amused at this, for he lives across the way from the infested houses. The final decision of the third party was to buy enough sulphur for three, and let the devil take the hindmost so far as other neighbours went. Perhaps cyanide would have been the thing, but I hesitated to mention this, for I like bats—so long as they stay out of my attic!, An attic of bats sounds like a great army of mice. One could hardly lie abed, staring at the ceiling while listening to that sound!
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