NEP IN DING NOs NoSONe NEI Ben 
investigation,” I will now endeavour to say a little more about it 
than I did in my first communication. I grant that the subject 
requires further investigation, and such I intended to have given it 
during a second visit this summer, by ascertaining positively whether 
any Bats are constant inhabitants of the Orkneys, and if so, of what 
species ; but I was unfortunately only there a few days, and in such 
weather as no Bats could be expected to withstand. If I did not 
attempt to account for the presence of this Bat, I certainly hinted at 
my views on the subject, by saying that a Bat is a very likely animal 
to be brought in a ship, and by observing that this specimen was 
looked upon as a very great curiosity, as any Bat would have been. 
Of the circumstances of its discovery I had undoubted evidence. 
The people who found it were as much astonished and frightened ! 
at it as Mr. Gerard was surprised to see it; and this gentleman 
preserved it with great care, as a thing of most unusual occurrence, 
though he did not know it was otherwise than a common Bat. 
I may add that he is now some years past eightv, and has all his 
life been an observer of Nature, as exhibited in the Orkney Islands, 
and especially in South Ronaldshay. This country, entirely destitute 
of trees, and so exposed to every wind, seems very ill-adapted for 
the constant residence of any species of Bat; and therefore these 
considerations, with the evidence of the people, at once inclined me 
to believe it was an accidental visitant. I was told at the British 
Museum that the characters I had observed—the hairiness of the 
upper side of the interfemoral membrane, and the yellowish band of 
hair on the wings underneath the principal bones—were peculiar 
to a family of American Bats, called from the first circumstance, 
Dasyurus or Lasiurus; and on my Bat (for it has since been very 
kindly presented to me by Mr. Gerard) being compared with those 
in the Museum, it was attributed to the species called pruinosus, 
although considerably larger than the specimens in the collection, 
and it may perhaps be a nearly allied species. Had any species of 
the group been known to inhabit Europe, I should have had better 
hopes of finding that this Bat was really indigenous to the north of 
Britain. All things considered, I have little doubt it was brought 
by one of the very numerous vessels which pass between South 
Ronaldshay and John o’ Groats, from various parts of the world, or 
which lie up in the far-famed roadstead, the Long Reach [qu. Hope? ], 
of which South Ronaldshay forms the eastern breakwater. Very 
many exotic insects are introduced by vessels at Liverpool and other 
seaports; and Bats can hide in a corner, and do without food in 
cold weather, almost as well as an insect. I hope the reason I have 
now stated will serve to explain my contentment in looking upox 
this Bat as an intruder. 
Edinburgh, 
December 15, 1849. 
1 (Mr. Wolley told me that some of them thought it was a deyil.—-Ep. ] 
