THE NOCTULE, OR GREAT BAT 59 



1869. Vesperugo NOCTULA, van minima, Victor Fatio, Vertebres de la Suisse, i., 58 ; 

 described from Geneva, Switzerland: See Mottaz, Bull. Soc. Zool. (Geneva), 15th 

 Nov. 1908, 151. 



1897. Pterygistes NOCTULA, G. S. Miller, junior, North American Fauna, No. 13, 

 87, footnote ; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., October 1897, 383-384 ; Oldfield Thomas, 

 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July 1901, 34 ; Johnston ; Mebely ; Cabrera ; Millais, 61. 



1898. PiPlSTRELLUS NOCTULA, Oldfield Thomas, Zoologist, 100 ; Millais, 61. 



La Nodule of the French ; die fruhfliegende Fledermaus of the 

 Germans. 



NoctJile, from the French noctule, diminutive from the Latin nox, 

 genitive nodis, i.e., " night." 



Local Names: — Rat Bat of Durham (Roebuck, Naturalist, 1886, 

 113), Cheshire (Oldham), Leicester (Montagu Browne), Buckingham 

 and Berkshire (Cocks, Zoologist, 1878, 334), and probably of other 

 counties. Ree rot, i.e., rere or rear rat (see " rere mouse" under 

 PiPlSTRELLE) of Gloucester (Newstead). Ystlum (pronounced " slim ") 

 Fawr, i.e., Great Bat of Wales (Forrest). 



Distribution : — The Noctule, or bats closely resembling it, inhabits 

 the wooded districts of boreal and transitional Europe and Asia, from 

 sea-level to over 4000 feet (in the Alps), from south Scotland and Norway, 

 Denmark, north Germany, and middle Russia, to the Mediterranean, 

 Black Sea, Caspian, and Turkestan (Samarkand), with (?) Minorca 

 (Barcelo), and Sicily (Blasius) ; and from Great Britain probably to 

 eastern Siberia ; but the exact limits of its range are very imperfectly 

 known, as are those of the allied forms mentioned above (p. 54), upon 

 which, or others, are probably based records of Noctules from Japan, 

 China, Nepal, Sikkim, Kandahar, Ceylon, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, and 

 Mozambique. 



Throughout the south of England, from Norfolk to Cornwall (Cocks, 

 Naturalist, (i), 185 1, 37 ; Rodd, Zoologist, 1891, 347), but rare in Wight 

 {MoxQ, Journ. cit., 1894, 148 ; Wadham), N. nodnla is a common species. 

 Its flight may even be observed in the heart of London, above the Serpen- 

 tine (Macpherson), or in many of the parks (Millais). It probably occurs 

 in every county of Wales, where Forrest reports it from Flint, Mont- 

 gomery, and Radnor ; Newstead along the Dee Estuary ; Coward and 

 Oldham in Denbigh, Carnarvon [Zoologist, 1901, 53), and Anglesey; 

 and Caton Haigh, in Merioneth {Zoologist, 1887, 293): in the latter 

 county it loves the oak-covered hills, and in Carnarvon it is abundant 

 at Nevin, right down to the sea-cliffs. 



In the north it is widely distributed, and abundant as far as south, 

 and probably central, Yorkshire, where it is found at an elevation of 

 700 feet, at Carperby in Wensleydale ; but towards the north and west 

 of the county it becomes less numerous, and Northallerton was its 

 most northern known British locality (Bell) until Nelson and Roebuck 



