We cannot forget Titania’s directions to her fairies in regard to Bats:—
“Some war with rear mice[24] for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats”
(Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act ii. Sc. 2);
nor the comfortable seat which Ariel appears to have found “on the bat’s back” (Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1).
The following striking passage must also be familiar to readers of Shakespeare:—
“Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister’d flight; ere, to black Hecate’s summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night’s yawning peal,