132 Daubentori s Bat ( Vesper tilio Daubentoni). [Sess. 



shore ; but, as far as we could discover, they had chosen posi- 

 tions where they were quite safe from intrusion. 



For about six or seven years I have had many opportunities 

 of watching the bats that frequent these cliffs, and, as far as 

 one can judge by seeing them at close quarters night after 

 night, they all appear to be of the same variety. I have caught 

 the long -eared bat at Benmore farmhouse, which is on the 

 opposite side of the glen from the rocks where Daubenton's 

 bat is found, and I observed that variety there this summer ; 

 but I have never seen it hunting for its food over the 

 waters of the lochs as is done by Daubenton's. The latter 

 bat does not generally make its appearance until the shade 

 of night has fallen and it has got pretty dark. We only 

 observed it on fine evenings, and during wet weather observed 

 its absence for a considerable number of consecutive nights. 

 When they were about they seemed very busy, and several 

 generally kept flying near our boat, dashing after our flies as 

 we cast our fishing-lines with our rods. From what I have 

 heard they seem sometimes to seize a fisher's fly and get caught, 

 but my own experience has been that they have always dis- 

 covered the fly to be only an imitation in time to save them- 

 selves, although they occasionally have had very narrow 

 escapes. 



Late one evening, during the summer of 1888, a fisher on 

 Loch Ure, while casting, struck a bat with the point of his 

 rod, and it fell dead into the boat. He kept the specimen for 

 me, and I got it either the next or following day, and from 

 what I recollect of it feel sure it was a Daubenton's bat. I 

 sent it to a taxidermist in Edinburgh to get stuffed, but it was 

 too long of reaching him. He wrote me that he could not 

 preserve it satisfactorily, so had destroyed it. Had this speci- 

 men been kept even as a damaged skin, I have no doubt that 

 Daubenton's bat would have been recorded from Loch Ure 

 some years ago. Although I have watched the bats flying 

 over both Loch Dochart and Loch Ure on many an evening 

 since the summer of 1888, I had no opportunity of examin- 

 ing one until lately, although I have tried frequently to catch 

 them. 



On the 14th of July last, about 4 p.m., I was on Loch 

 Dochart fishing, and as it had fallen a dead calm and we were 



