124 The Irish Naturalist [May, 1899. 



ZOOLOGY. 



MAMMALS. 



The natural history of Bats. 



Mr. Alcock in his admirable papers on the Natural History of Irish 

 Bats, has quoted me in one or two places, and it is only fair to him to 

 point out the results of some later observations. On page 31 of this 

 volume he mentions that we give the time of appearance of Daubenton's 

 Bat as 70 minutes after sunset, and adds that this was the time when the 

 first bat was noticed on the water. It has never been my luck to watch 

 this bat leaving its diurnal resting-place, but from my later observations t 

 I find that the average time when I first observed it on the water was 56 

 minutes after sunset, approaching much nearer to Mr. Alcock's average 

 of 54 minutes. The average is taken from notes made in May, June, and 

 July. Again, I find that I have noticed this species three days later than 

 in earlier years. On August 20th, 1896, several were flying on a still 

 reach of the River Bollin, although there were none on the pond where 

 I usually observe them. 



I have never observed Noctules on the wing before the end of March, 

 although I received two which had been taken from the roof of a house 

 on the 19th of that month, whose stomachs contained undigested food. 

 On page 33 Mr. Alcock states that I saw Noctules in Devonshire on 

 September 22nd. This I think is a printer's error, as it was at Alport, in 

 Derbvshire, that I saw them. The latest date that I have seen this bat 

 was on October 10th, 1896, when I observed a single one on the wing at 

 5.20, six minutes before sunset. The following day we had the first fall of 

 snow. 



. In his paper on the Whiskered Bat, Mr. Alcock says that only one 

 specimen was found using a tree as a resting-place. My experience has 

 been similar: I only once came across one in such a situation. It was 

 hiding behind some loose bark on a dead tree in Delamere Forest. The 

 Whiskered Bat seems to be fond of feeding in the day time ; on June 3rd, 

 1898, a bright sunny day, I observed two flying over the River Dane, 

 near Wincle, in Cheshire. The first I saw kept for some time in the 

 shadow of the bridge, but afterwards flew up and down the stream in 

 strong sunlight. The other was flying under some trees, every now and 

 then going up stream for about fifty or a hundred yards. Although the 

 light was strong, both bats eluded my attempts to capture them for a 

 considerable time. I struck the first one down with a cloak, but it got 

 up from the ground and escaped unhurt. The second I killed with an 

 umbrella, and then made certain that it was a Whiskered Bat. Oldham 

 killed another the same day in the Coyt Valley, near Whaley Bridge, a 

 locality where he has seen them in the daytime before. 



T. A. Coward. 

 Bowdon, Cheshire. 



