Why Bats and Owls Fly Only at Night

Do you know what a bat is? On the one hand, it is very much like a bird: it has wings and it can fly. But on the other hand, it is very much like a mouse: it has teeth and ears, it doesn't lay eggs, and it has no feathers. And what is more, the bat is blind. If a man does not see, the English say, "He is as blind as a bat."

Bats are certainly very strange animals. A mother bat carries her little ones on her, and they drink her milk. They leave her only when they are big and can fly. Bats sleep by day and fly at night. But why do bats fly only at night? Here is a short story which can tell you why.

One cool autumn day, a bat flew up and down, crying because he was cold. The eagle, the king of birds, heard him.

"Are you crying because you are hungry, little bat?" asked the eagle.

"No," answered the poor bat. "I am crying because I am cold."

"But why don't the birds cry?" the eagle wanted to know.

"They are warm because they have feathers, and I am cold because I haven't any feathers," said the bat.

The eagle thought a little and then told one of the birds to fly to all the other birds. "Tell them to leave their nests and fly to me quickly," he said.

When all the birds were there, the eagle asked them to give the bat a feather each. When the birds gave the bat a feather each, the bat began to look wonderful. Each feather had a different color, and when the bat showed his wings, everybody saw that they were really beautiful. The bat was greatly pleased with his feathers. They were red, white, bright yellow, pale and dark blue, green, light brown, and grey. The bat began to think himself better than any other bird or animal. He neither looked at them nor listened to them and flew about in the sky with his nose high up. The animals and birds did not like that. They all went to the eagle and told him about the bat.

"Why didn't you laugh at him?" asked the eagle. "The best way to make somebody sorry for something he does is to laugh at him."

"At first we laughed at him, but nothing changed, and we are very angry with him. That's how he paid us for our feathers."

The eagle did not like it either. "You are right," the eagle said. "That's not the way to thank you for what you have done." "I am going to speak to him."

So the eagle called the bat and said, "Little bat, all the birds are angry with you." "They have given you their feathers, and you have not even thanked them." "You think that only you are beautiful and that you are too pleased with yourself." "Remember that the feathers that are on you now belonged to the birds."

"They do not like me because I look better than they." "Just look and see for yourself," answered the bat and showed his wings, which looked really wonderful.

The eagle was very angry with the bat. "Yes, the birds are right," he said. "I see that words do not help here; they cannot change you." "Very well, then each bird must take back the feather it has given you." "If you are as beautiful as you think, you can go without the birds' feathers."

And each bird flew up to the bat and took its feather. So there is not a feather on the bat now. The bat is so angry with the birds that from that day on he has flown only at night, not to meet any of them.