THE NOCTULE, OR GREAT BAT 69 



of its own species, at the time of year when the small 

 hairy cockchaffer ... 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. . . . Its latest 

 are by no means its lowest flights ; even in November I have 

 observed it at such a height, that I could hardly have seen 

 it, had not my eye been directed to it by its cry. This is the 

 cricket-like chirp which it always makes with incessant repeti- 

 tion when flying high : ... it calls my attention to the 

 animal when it is within a hundred yards or so, frequently 

 giving me the first intimation of its presence : it is so readily 

 distinguished by its peculiar cadence from the chirp of other 

 bats, that however dark the evening, it gives me certain indica- 

 tions of the Noctule." 



The habit of sometimes flying straight away and to a 

 distance from its diurnal retreat may frequently have the effect 

 of preventing the species from coming under attention in its 

 actual home. Dowker,^ for instance, although observing them 

 issue from his house in Kent, whence they immediately took 

 flight across the marshes, searched for them in vain on the 

 wing in the immediate neighbourhood, to which they only 

 returned at the conclusion of their flicrht. 



It was long thought that the Noctule remains in 

 activity for a shorter period than any other bat, coming 

 out later and retiring earlier : White ^ never saw it abroad 

 till the end of April, nor later than July ; but this excep- 

 tionally short season at Selborne must have been due to 

 causes other than hibernation, since subsequent observers 

 have lengthened the flighting period until it is now known to 

 include every month of the year, excepting only the latter part 

 of December and January. No doubt its appearance in the 

 spring and its retirement in the autumn depend to some extent 

 on the mildness of the season, but Mr L. Buttress^ has noticed 

 it abroad in Nottinghamshire on 14th March, the thermometer 



' Zoologist^ 1889, 258. 



^ Letters xxii., xxvi., and xxxvi., to Thomas Pennant, dated 2nd January 1769, 

 8th December 1769, and September 1771. 

 2 Fields 23rd April 1892, 585. 



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