146 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



THE WHISKERED BAT (VESPERTILIO MYSTA- 

 CINUS, LEISL.) IN EAST LOTHIAN. 



By WILLIAM EVANS, F.R.S.E. 



ON 28th March last, Mr. George Pow, Dunbar, sent me a 

 Bat which I at once saw was worthy of more than the cursory 

 glance I was at the moment only able to give it. Accordingly 

 it was passed on the same day to Mr. Eagle Clarke to be 

 softened (the wing membranes were already too dry to be 

 stretched without tearing), and then compared with the spirit 

 specimens of British Bats in Mr. Clarke's collection. A 

 couple of days later we examined it together and found it to 

 be an example of the Whiskered Bat ( Vcspertilio mystacinus, 

 Leisl.) I immediately wrote to Mr. Pow for full information 

 as to place and date of capture, and learned from him that 

 the little animal was knocked down on the links about a mile 

 east of Dunbar, on the evening of 2Oth March, by a fisher-boy, 

 from whom he received it alive. 



I am thus enabled to add this interesting species to the 

 fauna of the Forth district ; and I do so with real satisfac- 

 tion, feeling sure that it is not a record of a mere straggler 

 from distant lands, wafted hither by a combination of circum- 

 stances which in all probability would not occur again for 

 many years to come, but a genuine addition to the list of our 

 native vertebrates. The specimen, moreover, is but the second 

 that has been recorded for Scotland. The first, which is 

 preserved in the Owen's College, Manchester, was captured 

 by Mr. J. Ray Hardy about four miles from Rannoch on the 

 Pitlochry Road, in June 1874. When referring to this 

 specimen in my " Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh 

 District" (April 1892), p. 23, I ventured to point to the 

 species as a very probable addition to our list, and it is there- 

 fore gratifying to be able to add it so soon. 



For several years past Mr. Pow has rendered me and 

 others invaluable aid in the investigation of various branches 

 of local Natural History, and I gladly avail myself of this 

 opportunity of publicly thanking him and commending his 

 disinterested zeal to the notice of others similarly situated. 



