160 DUBLIN NATTJEAL HISTOEY SOCIETY. 



wings clutching the upright wires, and stiffened in this graceful atti- 

 tude. The bats can see well, even in the daylight ; one of my five got 

 loose in a room yesterday where there was plenty of light ; hard work 

 enough I had to catch him ; every time I flapped my handkerchief, or 

 put out my hand, he would turn and avoid me like a hare. They select 

 the dry little nooks in the cave, and, when hanging, they ai'e completely 

 enveloped in their wings. On holding a candle near them, they would 

 wiiy?e from the strong light. — March 20th. They do not congregate in 

 large numbers. I could only find five the last day I was in the cave. 

 You do not see more than one in each nook or crevice. I saw one fel- 

 low hanging from the bare ceiling, but they 4)refer crevices. They were 

 all within reach of my hand. — March 22nd. Yesterday, I was in two 

 or three caves near Quinn ; they are not good ones, not dark enough 

 for bats ; any caves in that neighbourhood, with small mouths, are 

 stopped up with loose stones and brambles. I opened one and went in, 

 but no bats. In one cave, with a large open mouth, I got one bat ; he 

 was hanging in an exposed (but dry) place, and quite visible by day- 

 light. I took him down, but finding him the same, i. e., horse- shoe 

 lesser, I hung him up again. It is evident these bats like their retreat 

 to be dry and daiji (pitch dark if possible), but dryness is the chief 

 point ; they prefer dry daylight to damp darkness. I think it likely 

 that the Great Horse-shoe may frequent this part of the country. A very 

 intelligent countryman near Quiim told me, of his own accord, that 

 there were two sorts of bats there, one a little fellow with a thing on 

 his nose ; the other much larger than it. — March 23rd. I was at the 

 original cave yesterday ; it is a positive fact that all the bats are males ; 

 there were six in the cave yesterday; I took them all down, examined 

 them, and finding they were the same species, and males, hung them up 

 again. — March 27th. I send this evening a box containing two bats 

 which I got yesterday in two separate caves near Quinn. I think one 

 is a female; it is larger than the others. One of the caves had been 

 stopped, but I opened it. 



"Yours, &c. 



*'F. J. Foot." 

 There are several curious facts deducible from these observations. 

 The choice of a dry, light retreat, in preference to a dark, damp one, is, 

 as has been noted by Mr. Foot, a curious circumstance, bats being ge- 

 nerally supposed to be dwellers only '' in caves where no daylight en- 

 ters," at least when hybemating ; although it is well known that some 

 species hawk in the broad glare of the noonday sun, especially in win- 

 ter, a fact of which I could quote numerous instances from my note- 

 book, were such wanted. The hybernation of the males apart would 

 also appear to be a settled question. All the specimens sent to me were 

 males, except one, that alluded to in the communication of March 27th. 

 Is this habit* of the congregation of a single sex peculiar to the hyber- 



* Since the above was in the printer's hands, I visited these caves myself, and find 

 that in the summer the bats desert them, as I could not find any. A person in the neigh- 



