The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 39] 1901 [JULY 



NATTERER'S BAT (VESPERTILIO NATTERERI, 

 KUHL) IN SCOTLAND. 



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



THE right of Natterer's Bat to a place in the list of Scottish 

 Mammals rests on : (i) the existence of a specimen (ad. ?) 

 in the British Museum, labelled Inveraray, August 1858, 

 and recorded in Dobson's " Catalogue of the Chiroptera," 

 p. 308 ; and (2) a statement published in the " Proceedings 

 of the Glasgow Natural History Society," vol. iv. p. 303, 

 announcing the occurrence of the species near Dalkeith, 

 made by the late Robert Gray to Mr. Harvie-Brown in a 

 letter dated 28th September 1880. Mr. Gray's words were : 

 " I find a new bat to our Scottish lists in some plenty near 

 Dalkeith, viz. V. nattereri" and " Nattereri was in dozens 

 in the hole of a tree." 



With regard to the second of these records, I did my 

 best some years ago, when writing my " Mammalian Fauna of 

 the Edinburgh District" (1892), to find out on what evidence 

 it was based. The results of my inquiries are fully stated 

 in the book referred to (p. 22), and are shortly as follows: 

 From Mr. Hope, taxidermist, Edinburgh, I learned that 

 in 1880 he had in his shop some bats from Dalkeith Park, 

 which Mr. Gray remarked were of an uncommon kind, and 



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