October, 1922, The Irish Naturalist 105 



THE HABITS OF THE LONG-EARED BAT. 



BY C. B. MOFFAT, B.A., M.R.I. A. 



The habits of so familiar an animal as the Long-eared Bat 

 (Plecotus auritus) ought by this time, one would think, to 

 be too thoroughly known to need much further study ; 

 and I confess that I was a little disconcerted on learning 

 in the summer of 1913 (towards the end of August) that a 

 swarm of bats of this species was to be seen every night 

 clustered together or the ceiling of a dark passage at 

 Bally hy land. I was in Dublin at the time, and could 

 not personally investigate the matter ; but having always 

 regarded the Long-eared Bat as an all-night flier I felt my 

 impressions rather badly knocked on the head by the 

 intelligence that a multitude of these animals spent the 

 early hours of every night clustering on the wall or ceilhig 

 of a dark indoor passage — ^w^here, moreover, they were 

 never seen in the day-time. , 



The account given me was, however, perfectly correct, 

 and the bats in question continued to frequent the passage 

 in the same manner for at least seven years (1913 to 1919 

 inclusive) — except during the winter months, when they 

 went elsewhere for hibernation. During the last five years 

 of this period I had them under almost daily — if I may 

 use such a word when I mean nightly — observation ; and 

 I now feel that I owe to the readers of the Irish Naturalist 

 some qualification of the verdict, " All- Night Flier/' which 

 Dr. x\lcock and I (as Tomes had done before us) returned 

 on the Long-eared Bat in the article we contributed to this 

 Journal^ in December, 1901. 



The inference that the Long-eared Bat flies all night 

 was dra\vn by Tomes (Bell's " British Quadrupeds," 2nd 

 ed., p. 75) from the fact that he was accustomed to hear 

 its cry in the open fields at all hours of the night, and even 

 in the darkest nights. To this Dr. Alcock and I were 



^ Vol. X., pp. 241-251. 



