DFBLIV NATXTBAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 167 



information, and not giving sufficient weight to the characters of the 

 intcrforaoral bands, I mistook the species for V. Nattereri, and as such 

 recorded it in our Proceedings, and in the " Zoologist." This error was 

 cleared up, some few months subsequently, by a visit to the British Mu- 

 seum, and also by a communication from Professor Bell, to whom I had 

 forwarded specimens a short time subsequent to my discovery. 



I quote Professor Bell's letter, lest any doubt should at any future 

 time arise as to the identity of V. mystacinus, which at present remains 

 unique, and is in a very bad condition. 



" The Weeks, Selhorne, May 1, 1853. 



** My dear Sir, — I return the bats, for the loan of which I am much 

 obliged, and am really sorry to have kept them so long from you. I 

 have examined them with great care, and am satisfied in my own mind 

 that the three (Kildare specimens) are V. Daubentoniij and the single 

 one (Clare specimen) V. mystacimcs. The former cannot be mistaken 

 for V. Nattereri, as the latter has only eight lines in the interfemoral. 

 I have taken it in this place amongst the rafters of a house which I pulled 

 down. V. Nattereri is also of a lighter colour. 



" Believe me, dear Sir, yours truly, 



" Thomas Bell." 



The lesser horse- shoe bat, Rh. hippostderos (Gmelin) is this evening 

 for the first time recorded in Ireland, so that at the present time six 

 Irish species are positively known, exactly double those known in 1838 ; 

 and it must be a subject of congratulation to your Society that all the 

 additions have first been made public through the medium of your 

 meetings, and that specimens of all the species are in your collection- 



The pigmy bat has also occurred near Dublin, but this is generally 

 now looked on as the young of the pipistrelle. 



As far back as 1845, as has been already seen. Professor M*Coy 

 recorded the occurrence of a Rhinolophus in Ireland. I should also 

 mention that, last Christmas, Professor William King, of Queen's Col- 

 lege, Galway, mentioned incidentally to me that he had captured a 

 horse-shoe bat in Galway the previous June. After I had identified 

 Mr. Foot's specimens, I wrote to Professor King, asking him whether 

 my memory served me right as to his conversation with me. In his 

 reply he mentioned that he had promised to make his dis(jpvery the 

 subject of a communication elsewhere.* I therefore notice it here, 

 though unpublished, to secure to him priority of discovery should his 

 specimen prove the same species as Mr. Foot's, now recorded. No other 

 record of the genus in Ireland, as far as I can learn, has ever been 

 published. 



* Thia he has sinoe done. Vide ** Proceedings of the Dablin University Zoologic.nl 

 and Botanical Association" for June, 1859. 



