OIJBLnr VkTOBAL HI8T0BT 80CIETT. 159 



DIMENSIONS. 



Inches. 



Length of head and body, 2-125 



„ head, 0625 



„ tail, 0-8 



„ ears, 0*75 



Spread of wings, 9-0 



Additional Measurements. — Humerus, 0*6 inch; cubitus, 1*5 inch; 

 poUex, 0*3; second finger, 1*0; third finger, 2*2; fourth finger, 1*8 

 fifth finger, 1*6; leg, to end of claws, 1*5; breadth of ear beneath, 

 0*345 ; spur or hallux, 0*5. 



The only female I examined was slightly larger than the males. 



The interfemoral ends at the ankle, leaving the whole foot free ; it 

 is slightly hairy on its upper half, and somewhat quadrilateral ; inter- 

 femoral bands very numerous (18-20). Feet slender, the claws mode- 

 rately long, covered with long white hairs ; whiskers weak and scat- 

 tered 



Habitat : Dark, dry caves. 



Localities: Ballyallia caves, Ennis, county of Clare; caves near 

 Quinn, county of Clare, where the species was discovered by F. J. Foot, 

 E8(i., March, 1859 ; Gal way, a single specimen, identified by Professor 

 William King, Queen's College, Gaiway, by whom it was captured in 

 a drawing-room, June, 1858. 



The specimens sent me by Mr. Foot lived for some time in confine- 

 ment ; they seemed in a semi-torpid state, were gentle in their manners ; 

 those which ate with me took both insects and raw meat, and lapped 

 milk ; they were all, with one exception, males ; their habits may be 

 gathered from Mr. Foot's communication ; their cry is feebler than that 

 of the pipistrelle. I append extracts from Mr. Foot's correspondence, 

 bearing on their habits : — 



''March 10, 1859. 



** Mt dear Kinahan, — I found out the cave near this, about which 

 you asked me when I was in town ; I got four bats in it ; it is very 

 curious to see how they hang suspended by their two legs from the 

 ceiling of the cave. There were plenty of them, but I only brought 

 home four, and put them in a cage, out of which I find one has efiected 

 his escape. — March 15th. I was at the cave again to-day, and got five 

 bats ; they have the horse-shoe-shaped thing on their nose, but not that 



in their ears March 16th. The bats, five in number (apparently alive 



and well), leave this morning. If they arrive alive, the best cage to 

 keep them in is a meat-cover made of wire gauze ; in a common cage 

 they hurt themselves trying to squeeze out between the bars, but they 

 cannot do this in the cover, and besides, the gauze does for them to hang 

 by. Those I first had I put into a wire cage, the wires about half an 

 inch apart, and two of them actually got fiirough and escaped. The 

 two which remained died hanging to ttie cross wires, the ends of their 



