APEEN DIS NiO) nie 5 
the chase that adorn his hall. I have inserted the English name of 
Papilio Machaon, a practice which, where it is possible, should be 
more generally adopted in ‘The Zoologist,’ as it is a great kindness 
to ladies and other unscientific people. 
Trinity College, Cambridge, 
March 18, 1845. 
HOE 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE NOCTULE. 
L‘ Zoologist,’ ii. (1845) pp. 952-954. ] 
Tur Noctule does not retire for hybernation nearly so early in 
the autumn as it is generally said to do. I had long observed its 
late disappearance in the south of Buckinghamshire, where it is very 
abundant ; but I have more particularly watched it at Cambridge, and 
now for two seasons I have seen it throughout the first week in 
November ; both years my observations were put an end to by cold 
and stormy weather. ‘This year (1845) I first saw it on the 
25th of March, with its usual high and rapid flight ; it might have 
been about for several days previously, as I had not kept a look out 
for it, but it could hardly have been about for more than four or five 
days, as there had been a long continuance of frost and snow to within 
a week of the 25th. It would be incredible that so accurate and 
constant an observer as White should have been mistaken on this 
point, were it not that the species is rare about Selborne ; it may be 
that towards the autumn it migrates to some towery spot, seeking 
good lodgings for the winter in company with its fellows: such a 
habit would also account for the vast congregations of Bats that have 
at various times been broken in upon at Oxford and elsewhere. Its 
flight is always strong, but varies remarkably at different times, no 
doubt infiuenced, like that of the Swallow, by the casual range of its 
prey ; at one time it may be seen flying away, straight and swift, at 
a great height in the air, no more to appear that evening ; at another - 
it will be performing a great circle, returning perhaps once in five or 
ten minutes; or it may be flying low (and then I think silently)’ 
along the streets of a town: again it is wheeling round tall elms, in 
company with others of its own species, at the time of year when the 
small hairy Cockchafer (Melolontha (?) | Rhizotrogus| solstitialis) is 
swarming about them. Then its powers are seen to perfection, and the 
great advantage over the feathered tribes that it derives from the 
mammalian articulation of its wings is beautifully evident. It may 
easily be brought within shot, for if a stone be thrown just before it, 
it will follow it nearly to the ground, no doubt thinking it is an 
insect, and so pursuing it as prey, and not as an object of curiosity, or 
as a subject for tyranny, as the Purple Emperor is said to do under 
