I900.J Moffat. — The Habits of the Hairy-armed Bat. 237 



night. Other considerations also pointed to the probability 

 of its retiring earlj^ as the Noctule is known to do (though 

 that species has not 5^et been ascertained to come out again in 

 the morning). Dr. Alcock had drawn my attention to the 

 fact that Hairj^-armed Bats shot by him an hour after sunset 

 had their stomachs so crammed with food that it seemed a 

 physical impossibility they could feed much longer. 



I therefore argued that since I could not detect the bats 

 going i7i in the evening, I must endeavour to catch them as 

 the}^ came out in the morning. This would at least prove the 

 fact, though not the time, of their retirement after dusk. So, 

 on the night of August 12th, I fixed a net at midnight over 

 the mouth of the hole. In the early morning hours of the 13th 

 I watched by this net (some brilliant Perseid meteors relieving 

 the monotony of the vigil), and at 3.15 a.m. heard a bat gently 

 flop into it. I found that I had secured a fine female Vesperugo 

 Leisleri, caught emerging for her morning flight, one hour and 

 twenty-six minutes before sunrise. 



Having made sure of my specimen, I quickly removed the 

 net so as not to disturb the remaining inmates of the hole in 

 their egress. I failed to see any bats emerge — the light being 

 too dim — but at 4. 20 had the satisfaction of seeing one re-enter. 

 As this individual cannot have left the hole while the net 

 was over it, the duration of its flight had not exceeded sixty- 

 five minutes. 



In the evening of the same day I saw four bats (the sur\dvors 

 of the colony of five) emerge for their evening flight in quick 

 succession between 7.38 and 7.42, 6 and 10 minutes after 

 sunset ; and at 8.53 by a fortunate chance, the moon's rays 

 falling full on the line of flight at the moment, I succeeded in 

 seeing one go in. This was one hour twenty-one minutes 

 after sunset. As the interval between earliest and latest 

 emergence had been so short, the duration of this example's 

 flight can be told with some exactness. It cannot have been 

 on the wing for a longer period than 75 or a shorter one than 

 71 minutes. 



We may thus claim to have a set of data, limited in number, 

 but precise as far as they go, determining the flight-time of 

 this local and somewhat imperfectly-studied species. It has 

 an evening flight and a morning flight, the two being of about 



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