26 INTRODUCTION 



gregate, each as a rule keeping to its own area. As stated above, 

 seven species have been found thus harbouring in Normandy, 

 and it seems likely that the majority of our British bats resort 

 at times to caves. On the other hand, there is, so far as I am 

 aware, no record of the occurrence in British caves at any time of 

 the Noctule, Leisler's Bat, or Serotine, while it appears that the 

 Pipistrelle enters them very rarely. When at rest bats either 

 hang suspended, head downwards, their feet gripping tightly the 

 inequalities of wall or ceiling, or they may lie along a slope, 

 or may wedge themselves into cracks or crevices. One 

 exotic species, the Flat-headed Bat,^ has the head peculiarly 

 flattened, as if to enable it to creep into narrow places. In 

 repose the wings of vespertiKonid bats are folded close to 

 the sides, but almost completely envelop the body in the 

 Horseshoes. Bats are extremely conservative in their affection 

 for particular haunts. In Kent's Hole, Devonshire, where 

 Montagu caught his Horseshoes, the heap of excrement^ and 

 bones associated with those of long extinct animals seem to 

 suggest an immemorial tenancy. Certain situations are again 

 much favoured, and when a captive bat is introduced into a 

 room it shows a tendency to suspend itself time after time in 

 one spot. In spite of this, disturbance by man may cause a 

 temporary or permanent desertion of a favoured retreat, and 

 even Kent's Hole is now little frequented. 



The manner of alighting is interesting. The usual method 

 is to secure a hold with the thumbs, and then shuffle 

 quickly round into the ordinary position with head downwards. 

 The Horseshoes are, however, so agile that, turning a somer- 

 sault in the air, they contrive to get an immediate grip with 

 their feet. This manoeuvre is combined with exceptional power 

 of obtaining hold, so that these bats can easily suspend them- 

 selves from such smooth surfaces as a curtain pole, which are 

 quite impracticable for a Noctule. Only two other species, 

 Natterer's and the Barbastelle, have been observed to follow 



^ Platymops viacmilani of Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, May 1906, 499-501. 



- Osburn, writing of fruit-eating bats in Jamaica {Zoologist, 1859, 6588-89), 

 mentions deposits " of great extent and many feet in thickness, on the floors of the 

 caves," which in one case could not be less than half a mile in length. See also H, L. 

 Ward's remarkable account of a Mexican bat-cave in Trans. Wisconsin Acad, of Sci., 

 Acts and Letters, xiv., 11, 634, etc., 1903 (1904). 



