166 The Rev. L. Jenyns on the Common Bat of Fennant. 



the hair is wholly dusky, except at the extreme tips, which 

 are of the same colour as above, but paler. In young speci- 

 mens the fur is entirely of a dusky-brown or brownish- gray, 

 in some instances almost black, without any tinge of red, 

 which appears to come afterwards, and to increase in in- 

 tensity with the age and size of the individual*. Nose, 

 lips, ears, flying and interfemoral membranes, dusky. 



To the above description of our Common English Bat, which 

 has been drawn from an examination of many individuals of 

 different sizes compared togethert, I may, perhaps, be allowed 

 to add two or three remarks in illustration of its habits. Pen- 

 nant, and after him some other of our English authors, describe 

 this species as retiring at the approach of winter into caves, 

 ruined buildings, the roofs of houses, or hollow trees. This is 

 by far too general an assertion. I believe that each of our 

 British Bats has its own peculiar place of concealment, and 

 that, under ordinary circumstances, their respective habits in 

 this particular are always the same. As far as my own expe- 

 rience goes, I have found hollow trees the constant retreat of 

 the Noctule, and the roofs of houses as uniformly resorted to by 

 the Long-eared Bat ; whilst the species under consideration I 

 never met with but in the crevices of decayed brick- work, in 

 the cracks of old gateways and door-frames, or behind the leaden 

 pipes frequently attached to buildings for carrying off the rain. 

 They seem peculiarly to delight in the two former situations, 



* In the specimen of the Pipistrelle in the British Museum, the fur is of a remark- 

 ably red or foxy colour ; and this individual is likewise distinguished by its size. 



+ The dimensions are all taken from the same individual, recently killed, and whilst 

 all the parts were in their natural state. The expansion of the flying membrane varies 

 in different specimens from seven inches and a half to eight inches and a half, which 

 last measurement I never found it to exceed ; so that Pennant's statement of nine inches 

 for this part must be looked upon as considerably above the average. 



collecting, 



