Word: grotto
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Mating Night. Early in September, when all the young bats were airworthy, the population of the grotto doubled to more than 650. The newcomers were males. Dubkin sensed procreation, but nothing happened for a while. Then one day (night, that is, for the bats) he noted a "nervous tension." The air was full of pairs of bats zigzagging round the tree trunk. After three days of pursuit and flight, the bats reached their understandings. They hung in pairs, by their feet, caressing each other with wings and tongues, then retired into the greenery. Dubkin had discovered from researches...
...first the White Lady rode through the night clinging to her mother's fur. After five days of this she stayed behind in the grotto. Dubkin often picked her off the roof, and soon she lost fear of him. Sometimes he took her home at night in spite of his mother's protests, and returned her to the grotto just in time for her breakfast. When the White Lady learned to fly, Dubkin watched her lovingly. He caught insects and held them up; she dropped down from the dark sky and picked them out of his hand...
Through the Fan. Now when he wanted to take her home he had to catch her in the grotto with a butterfly net. She did not seem to resent this treatment. She flew all around his house while his mother stayed locked in her own room. One night the White Lady flew through the blades of a humming electric fan. She performed the trick over & over, to demonstrate her control, but when Dubkin ran the fan at full speed (1,200 r.p.m.), she could sense that the blades were moving too fast and would not try to fly through them...
...Chiropterophile Dubkin took her on long drives. She flew home from Milwaukee (90 miles) faster than he could drive. When the male bats arrived in September, he realized it was time for the White Lady to carry on with her own life, so he put her back in the grotto to find her mate...
...problem was solved by bulldozers. In May, just before the date set for his marriage, Dubkin slipped off to take another look. The grotto had been destroyed to make way for a housing project. He was married on schedule, and never saw the White Lady again...