ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



VII. — On a new Species of Bat found in the County of Durham, 

 and preserved in the Museum belonging to the Durham Uni- 

 versity. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 



[With a Plate.] 



-DURING a visit at Durham last autumn, I noticed in the 

 Museum attached to the University of that town a White Bat, 

 which I at first supposed to be merely an accidental variety of 

 one of our common species. On a closer inspection I per- 

 ceived that it could not be referred to any species I was ac- 

 quainted with ; and on making application to Mr. Fox, the 

 well-known naturalist of that place, who was accompanying 

 me at the time, I was kindly entrusted by that gentleman with 

 the loan of the specimen, to enable me on my return home to 

 submit it to a more rigorous examination. This I have ac- 

 cordingly done ; and I have little hesitation in pronouncing 

 it to be distinct from all the bats which have been hitherto 

 met with in this country, and as far as my knowledge goes, 

 from all those described by continental authors. There is no 

 ground for supposing that its white colour is otherwise than 

 accidental ; but it possesses other characters, those especially 

 derived from the form of the tragus, of sufficient importance, 

 I think, to mark its peculiarity. 



I learnt upon inquiry, that this bat had been obtained some 

 time preceding in the church of Auckland St. Andrew, which 

 place is about twelve miles S.W. of Durham. It is now 

 stuffed, on which account it is not possible to take some of the 

 measurements with as much accuracy as could be wished. 

 But the parts are well displayed ; and the exact form of the 

 auricle and tragus in particular may be correctly traced. 



I propose to designate this bat by the name of Vespertilio 

 cedilis. And the following may serve as its specific character ; 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol.3. No. 15. April 1839. g 



