1922. Moffat.— The Habits of the Long-eared Bat. 107 



The presence of this assemblage in so convenient a spot 

 as the passage leading from the main corridor to my 

 bedroom was a great help towards ascertaining the periods 

 of hibernation and activity, and also some particulars as 

 to the breeding habits of these bats. They generally began 

 to shovv^ themselves in the passage in some numbers before 

 the end of March, and continued to do so well into November. 

 In the four springs from 1916 to 1919 the earliest dates 

 for seeing clusters of three or more were respectively 

 March 30, March 24, March 19, and April 4. The latest 

 dates in the four autumns from 1915 to 1918 were November 

 9, November 24, November 22, and November 24. Individual 

 bats turned up in the passage in every winter month ; 

 but this was a very occasional occurrence, and I never 

 saw tvs'o together on any night between the beginning of 

 December and the end of February. 



A fact of some importance ascertained by watching 

 these bats was that their principal mating season is the 

 spring — from the first week of April till about the middle 

 of May. 



This fact, of which it was easy to obtain convincing 

 evidence on almost any evening of the period indicated, is 

 not in agreement with the conclusion arrived at for bats 

 in general by the two continental zoologists — Messrs. R. 

 Rolhriat and E. L. Trouessart — whose memoir^ is 

 pronounced by Major Barrett-Hamilton the most complete 

 treatise bearing on the breeding habits of these mammals. 

 These high authorities — for whose conclusions I am indebted 

 to the summary of their memoir in Barrett-Hamilton's 

 " History of British Mammals " ^ — find that the pairing of 

 bats is almost exclusively an autumnal function, and that 

 though occasional acts of mating take place in winter 

 during intervals of interrupted hibernation, there is never 

 any pairing in spring. 



1 " Sur la reproduction des Chauves-Souris," Mim. Soc. Zool. de 

 France, ix., pp. 214-240, 1896. 



2 Vol. i.; pp. 32-4. 



KZ 



