

ON BATS. I 1$ 



this island, and of course little known, it may not he un- 

 interesting to give 9ome additional description of it i'rom 

 specimens in my possession, and to make such further re- 

 marks as may conduce to its natural history. 



The tirst I obtained was taken on wing in the village of Described. 

 Milton, which is situate near the coast, and, I believe, was 

 a female. 



The colour of this is a dusk-black, intermixed with a 

 few gray-brown hairs towards the rump : the membranes of 

 the wiugs and tail dusky. 



On the 17th of August 1805, I procured a male spe- 

 cimen alive; it was found adhering to a small tree near 

 Kingsbridge. 



* The length is nearly four inches, of which the tail mea- 

 sures one inch seven eighths ; the extent of the wings 

 about eleven inches : weight exactly one hundred grains. 



The colour differed a little from that of the former, es- 

 pecially in having the middle of the back and the breast 

 mixed with silver gray hairs; the lower belly, thighs, and 

 behind the vent on the tail membrane more gray. The nose 

 is rounded in front, flat, and cavernous on the top, in 

 which part the nostrils are placed ; ears large and black, 

 furnished with a linear valve, and unusually broad at the 

 base, extending forwards, and meeting over the nose, so as 

 to cover the forehead : eyes very small, seated within the 

 membrane of the ear : the teeth numerous in both jaws, and 

 much jagged; in the upper, four cutting teeth, but no 

 canine, aud a vacant space between those and the grinders : - 

 in the lower jaw six cutting teeth and four canine or longer ' 

 teeth, and between these last on each side is a small inter- 

 mediate one ; these longer teeth fall into the vacant space 

 in the upper jaw. 



Buffon appears to be the first naturalist who recorded 

 this species, and his account of it has been copied by suc- 

 ceeding writers. 



It seems to partake of the habits of the common bat ; its difference 

 but it may readily be distinguished from vespertilio muri- from the coa *" 

 tius, even on the wing, in the earlier part of the evening, m ° ft at " 

 by its superior size, and in being by far the darkest in eo* 

 lour of all the British bats. Upon comparison, the flat- 

 tened nose, more pointed ears, ancLpaiticuiarljr the base of 



I a these 



