1 62 THE SEROTINE IJAT IN ESSEX. 



Tellina baltica, Linn. Generic name only in the list. 

 [Mytilus j 



[Balanus - Specimens not forthcoming.] 

 [Flustra ) 



It is worthy of note that at the British Museum, Natural History 

 Department, are two species from the Bovverbank Collection labelled 

 "Near Walton (Mr. Brown)," to wit : — 



Planorbis nautileus, Linn, (given as crista), which does not 

 occur in the above list, and 



Paludestrina ventrosa, Mont. 



In the British Museum also, is one species from Walton, 

 presented by John Brown : — 



Helix nemoralis, Linn. 



Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S., 



Meiiib. Maine. Soc. 



THE SEROTINE BAT {SCOTOPHILUS SEROTINUS, 

 GMEL.) IN ESSEX. 



By miller CHRISTY, F.L.S. 



NEARLY eleven years ago, I had the pleasure of recording the occurrence of 

 the Serotine Bat for the first time in ithis county. (PROCEEDINGS ESSE.X 

 Field Club, Vol. iv., p. iv.) Since that time the species has not, until now, 

 been again met with in Essex, and the record still stands as the most northerly 

 occurrence of the animal in Britain. I am glad, therefore, to be able to add 

 that, about one a.m. on the 25th of August last, a fine male specimen entered my 

 bedroom at the " Pryors," Bloomfield, by the window, which stood open to the 

 extent of two inches at the top. I made every effort to secure it, as I saw that it 

 was one of the less common species, but it was more than half an hour before I 

 succeeded, and then only by the novel expedient of standing on a chair in the 

 middle of the room and whirling a large bath-towel round my head, so that the 

 bat had only the corners of the room to fly in, and was soon knocked down. It 

 proved an unusually large specimen. Its total length (tip of nose to end of tail) 

 is 5^ inches ; weight f oz. ; and expanse of wing 14 inches, thus rivalling the 

 ordinary dimensions of the Noctule, which is usually the larger of the two. In 

 colour, too, it varied considerably from the description usually given of the 

 Serotine. Nowhere was there any appearance of the " deep chestnut brown 

 which both Bell ( " British Quadrupeds," p. 46) and Harting ( " Zoologist," 189I) 

 p. 102) speak of as usually distinguishing the species. The back was ot a dark 

 blackish-brown, but the fur was tipped with yellowish-grey, thus giving much the 

 same "frosty" appearance as the silvery-grey tips of the fur on the back of the 

 Barbastelle. The under parts were of a smoky-grey. I have deposited the 

 specimen in the Club's museum at Chelmsford. 



