List of the Fauna of the (Jountij. 159 



Cheiroptera. Vespertilionid^. . 



ScoTOPHiLus NOCTULA. TliG Great Bat. — This Bat, the 

 largest of the British Cheiroptera, occurs here commonly. 

 It is said to have a shorter period of activity than most of 

 the order, but my experience is, that it comes out of its 

 winter haunts in March if the season is favourable, and 

 continues on the wing until late in October ; it is to be seen 

 flying over the river and this town, and in fact all through 

 the valley of the Colne, in abundance, until quite the end 

 of the month, in suitable seasons. The latest period at 

 which I have obtained a specimen was on the 10th of 

 November. I never find any other species hybernating 

 with it ; hollow trees appear to be its favourite resting-places, 

 but I know a few spots where it may always be found resting 

 between chimneys and the walls of houses. I think it is 

 one of our most beautiful bats, the rich brown fur, smoother 

 and finer than velvet, contrasting well with the black wings. 

 In flight it is like the swift, rapid and high, and it well 

 merits Gilbert White's name altivolans. ^ 



ScoTOPHiLUs pipistrellus. Tlic Common Bat. — This Bat, 

 a small edition of the noctule, is here, as elsewhere, the 



Bobert F. Tomes, and Edward E. Alston. London, 1874. In the original 

 manuscript Mr. Laver had prefixed short specific diagnoses to his 

 remarks upon each species, but the Editor has expunged these as being 

 unnecessary : the generic and specific characters are admirably given in 

 Bell's work, which should, of course, be in the hands of all students of 

 our native Mammalia. A considerable amount of information on the 

 habits and food of some of our mammals will be found in Mr. Harting's 

 paper on "Forest Animals," ' Transactions,' i. 74. — Ed.] 



3 [See 'Natural History of Selborne,' Letters XXIL, XXVL, and 

 XXXVI. Sir William Jardine remarks : — " The British fauna is indebted 

 to Wliite for the first notice of this species ; it is locally distributed, and 

 although not common generally is found in numbers together, so many 

 as 185 having been taken in one night from the eaves of Queen's College, 

 Cambridge. It was first described by Daubenton under the name of 

 ' La noctule,^ which name Latinised was afterwards continued, and is 

 prior to White's name of VespertiUo altivolans, which we regret has not 

 been retained, as it is so characteristic of the habits of the species."- 

 —Ed.] 



