2 Coward, Faimal Survey of Rostherne Mere. 



and not because they are specially attracted by the 

 aquatic insects. There are others, however, which so 

 habitually resort to the reed-beds for food that they must 

 have considerable bearing upon the status of the various 

 species of reed-haunting invertebrates. Some habitually 

 nest in aquatic vegetation, whilst others again are attracted 

 to the reed-beds for purposes of gregarious roosting at 

 times of migration. All these birds whose connection 

 with the mere we may term intentional and not accidental 

 we have considered. 



Mammalia. 



Daubenton's Bat, aptly 

 Myotis daubentonii (Kuhl). called the Water Bat by 



the late Major Barrett- 

 Hamilton, who adopted the name from the German 

 Wasserfledermaus, must, unfortunately, only be included 

 provisionally in the Rostherne fauna. We have never 

 actually seen this aquatic bat flying over the water of the 

 mere. The explanation is, probably, that we have not 

 been at the right spot at suitable times and seasons, for 

 the species occurs in the immediate neighbourhood. We 

 have seen it on the river Bollin, less than a mile from the 

 mere on the one hand, and in abundance on pools on 

 Knutsford Moor, and we have had specimens taken from 

 a tree on the margin of the neighbouring mere at Tatton. 

 It is plentiful in Dunham Park and other places at no 

 great distance, and it would be remarkable if it did not 

 occur in some numbers at Rostherne. 



The habit of this bat is to fly low over the surface of 

 the water feeding on aquatic flies, which it apparently 

 occasionally picks from the surface and constantly cap- 

 tures as they fly a few inches above the water. When it 

 is numerous it must destroy multitudes of night-flying 



