'Bats have been a greater source of horror and mystery in literature than perhaps any other living creature. The transmogrifying agent between human beings and bloodsucking servants of the devil, bats are usually represented as the animal which terrifies heroines. They are portrayed as demonic swarms which become enmeshed in a heroine's hair as she teeters on the edge of a precipice. Bats have gained an unenviable reputation which, until very recently, has been completely undeserved.'