1897-98-] Daabentoris Bat. 353 



country is but imperfectly known, and there is much that 

 can yet be learned regarding them. In January 1895 Mr 

 Symington Grieve read a paper before this Society giving a 

 detailed account of the occurrence of Daubenton's bat in the 

 rocks that border Loch Dochart, Perthshire — the first record 

 of its appearance in that county. It is to the capture of the 

 same species in Argyllshire that I now refer. 



Kinlochaline Castle, as its name implies, is situated at the 

 head of Loch Aline, an inlet from the Sound of Mull, in the 

 parish of Morvern. In the long summer evenings I had often 

 watched the bats issuing from the old tower, and flitting up 

 and down the river ; under the shade of the trees, or wheeling 

 in larger circles across the surface of the loch. I had always 

 suspected the presence of other species than the pipistrelle and 

 the long-eared bat, but I was never able to capture or identify 

 one until last summer. One afternoon, when having a last 

 look round the old building for the season, I discovered in one 

 of the lintels a crevice which gave unmistakable evidence of 

 the presence of bats, but the puzzle was how to get them out. 

 The wall, built to withstand a siege, as it had often done when 

 times were more troublous than now, was of too stout material 

 to be even partially loosened, and the crevice was too small to 

 admit of them being got at with a stick. I was despairing of 

 making a capture, when I thought of trying the effect of 

 smoke. With a few scraps of paper and a match I soon 

 made the trial. As the smoke began to find its way upward 

 through the crevices in the wall, I could hear the bats rustling 

 and chirping in their retreat, and then a single bat darted 

 out, followed by another and another in quick succession. I 

 caught as many as I could with my hands, but found they 

 scrambled out of my pockets as fast as I put them in, and it 

 was only by pinning down the flaps of my pockets that I 

 managed to retain possession of a dozen of those I had 

 captured. At least fifty came out at this aperture, and were 

 flying about the vaulted chamber in the castle. I saw a good 

 many alight on the walls and disappear into holes away out of 

 reach, where some more of their kind rested secure from any 

 rude disturber of their peace. I had never previously come 

 across Daubenton's bat, and was not quite sure of the species, 

 so I sent some by post to Mr Wm. Evans, who identified them 

 as Vespertilio Daubentoni. This species is not included in 



