DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIXTT. 153 



stalactites. I call them incipient, as they do not attain to any length, 

 but form a kind of bead- work arranged in polygons. From this, through 

 an opening one foot six inches wide, we creep into the third com- 

 partment. It may be described as a rugged cell, twenty-four feet in 

 length, varying fh)m two to four in width, and averaging four in 

 height. 



The cave is quite destitute of vegetable life. Its sole inhabitants 

 seem to be the lesser horseshoe bat {Rhtnolophus htpposideros), the apple 

 sphinx moth, and a large blackish spider. Of both of these, some 

 dozens occurred. I shall confine my further remarks to what I ob- 

 served respecting the bats. 



The favourite haunts of these are dry vertical nooks in the rock, 

 from the top of which they hang suspended by their claws, head down- 

 wards, and completely enveloped in their wings ; so much so that not 

 even their ears are visible. They sometimes, but not often, suspend 

 themselves from the flat under surface of the rock. Two are rarely seen 

 near each other, and never more than one in the same nook. In select- 

 ing a position to hang themselves, they appear to be regardless of its 

 distance from the ground, as they may be seen at different heights. On 

 the candle being held near them, they wince slightly from the light, 

 changing their vertical position into a curve. They are easily captured, 

 making no resistance beyond a faint squeak or clicking noise. 



I met only the one species ; and it is a singular fact that in three 

 visits I made to the cave, all I saw were males. On my first visit I saw 

 four in the innermost, and two in the middle compartment ; they were 

 all in nooks. It should be remembered that the inner compartment 

 was tolerably dry that day. On my second visit, about a week after- 

 wards, this compartment was deserted, whereas I captured five in the 

 middle one. The inner cave at this visit was dripping with water, 

 there having been a good deal of rain in the interval, which soaked 

 through the joints of the rock. The third time I went I remarked one 

 bat in the first compartment, near the entrance, in broad daylight. In 

 the middle chamber there were two, not in crevices, but suspended from 

 a flat surface near the ground. In the innermost there were three. 

 This day the cave was rather wet. From what I had hitherto observed, 

 I consider it remarkable finding one near the entrance, and in daylight. 

 They appear generally to like total darkness, but a dry retreat is evi- 

 dently their chief desideratum, so that they prefer daylight to damp 

 darkness. 



There are several caves in the neighbourhood of Quinn (about five 

 miles east of Ennis), which I have examined, in hopes of finding other 

 species. Any of these caves which had small mouths were rudely 

 stopped up with loose* stones and brambles, to prevent the foxes earth- 

 ing in them (this being a hunting country). There was plenty of room, 

 however, for the bats to enter if they chose. I removed the stoppages 

 from two of them, and explored the interior ; but although they were 

 dry and dark, and very promising, I could not discover any bats. 



In a cave near the village of Quinn, which only extends a short 

 distance under ground, and can be all examined without a candle, I 



