22 INTRODUCTION 



elsewhere. It is evident that the islands are the meeting- 

 ground for bats having elsewhere different types of distribution. 

 Bechsteini and nathusii are so little known that they may be 

 excluded from consideration. 



Habits: — The general habits of all insectivorous, as com- 

 pared with frugivorous bats,^ are at first sight very similar, and it 

 is only of late years that they have attracted much attention from 

 British naturalists, thanks mainly to Messrs Alcock, Coward, 

 C. B. Moffat, Charles Oldham, Tomes, and Arthur Whitaker.^ 



Most species have their peculiar haunts, which they frequent 

 in preference to, but not to the entire exclusion of, all others. 

 The narrow-winged Noctule and Leisler's Bat, the fleetest 

 of their race, often accompany the swifts to great heights in 

 wooded districts. These and other strong fliers swoop falcon- 

 like on their prey when in full flight, but the Long-eared, using 

 its ears like sensitory tentacles, the Whiskered, and probably 

 Natterer's and the Barbastelle, although not incapable of 

 captures in mid-air, more usually snatch resting insects from 

 the branches of trees. Daubenton's, on the contrary, obtains 

 its food hovering over the surface of water, and is often accom- 

 panied by others, especially by Natterer's. The Serotine loves 

 glades and gardens, feeding around trees, although not actually 

 amongst the branches. The Pipistrelle, whilst it affects a 

 variety of situations, is pre-eminently the familiar bat of our 

 farmyards and houses. The rare Bechstein's has not been 

 definitely connected with any special habitat, but the butterfly- 

 like sailing on expanded wings of the two Horseshoes is quite 

 characteristic. The latter possess such a wonderful power of 

 threading their way through intricate places in captivity that it 

 seems almost impossible to believe that they do not naturally 



^ This distinction, like others used for purposes of convenience, is not absolute, 

 since some of the bats with insectivorous dentition eat fruit (see Dobson's Catalogue 

 of Chiroptera^ 390, 466, 503, 511, 514, etc.), suck the blood of larger animals {pp. 

 cit., 155, 466, 486, 549), or catch shrimps, fish {op. cii., 397), small birds or mice 

 (A. M. Primrose, also E. Gleadovv, y<9«r«. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, xvii., 1021-1022). 



^ Some important allusions to habits are scattered through Dobson's Catalogue of 

 Chiroptera. P. H. Gos?,&'s Naturalist in famaica, 185 1, contains original observations 

 on the bats of that island. His allusions to the crepuscular habits (p. J 62) and segrega- 

 tion of the sexes (p. 294) in some species are probably amongst the earliest published 

 references to these points in their economy. Another paper of great interest, W. 

 Osburn's " Notes on the Cheiroptera of Jamaica," in Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), 24th 

 Jan, 1865, 61-85, deals with fruit-eating bats. 



