TYPICAL BATS. 47 



than in any other British member of the order. This charac- 

 teristic is noticed by Mr. Montagu Browne, who captured one 

 of these Bats among a colony of Pipistrelles in a church in 

 Leicestershire. Thus he writes that " the flight of the two 

 species varied much, the Pipistrelles flying quicker, and con- 

 stantly changing the direction of their flight in a zig-zag kind 

 of manner, whereas the flight of Natterer's Bat was more fully 

 sustained, and much more direct, though somewhat slower. 

 A marked difference between the flight of the two species was 

 not so much the greater spread of wing as the evident breadth 

 of the wing-membrane. Most noticeable, however, was the 

 greyish-white tint of the under-part of the body ; and this was 

 readily observed, not only when flying in the light of the 

 lamps, but when the animal was high up, or in the darkest 

 parts of the church — so much so, indeed, that the people who 

 were assisting constantly exclaimed * Here comes a white- 

 waistcoated one.'" Essentially a gregarious species, the 

 Reddish-grey Bat seems invariably to select either buildings — 

 and preferably their roofs — or caverns for its retreat. Bell 

 records the discovery of an enormous colony in the year 1848 

 between the ceiling and roof of Arrow Church, near Alcester. 

 " Here," he writes, " the Bats were seen adhering, by all their 

 extremities, to the under surface of the row of tiles which 

 forms the crest or ridge of the roof, and others clinging to them 

 until a mass was made up three or four inches thick, six or 

 seven wide, and about four feet in length." Instead of the 

 repose which ordinarily characterises such an assemblage, 

 these Bats w^re in a constant state of unrest and turmoil, those 

 on the outskirts of the mass striving (probably for the sake of 

 warmth) to make their way into the interior, which was as 

 strenuously resisted by the occupants of the inside places. 

 Numbers of dead and dried young ones, which had probably 

 fallen from their mothers, strewed the floor of the chamber. 



