78 VESPERTILIONID^— NYCTALUS 



reception. The young bat was at its birth perfectly destitute 

 of hair, and blind. As soon as it was born, the mother 

 ** licked it clean, turning it over in its nest, and afterwards 

 resuming her usual position, and placing the young one in 

 the membrane of her wing, proceeded to gnaw off the umbilical 

 cord and eat the placenta. She next cleaned herself, and 

 wrapped up the young so closely as to prevent any observation 

 of the process of suckling. The time occupied in the birth 

 was seventeen minutes. At the time of its birth the young was 

 larger than a new-born mouse, and its hind legs and claws 

 were remarkably strong and serviceable, enabling it not only 

 to cling to its dam, but also to the deal sides of the cage. On 

 the 24th the animal took her food in the morning, and appeared 

 very careful of her young, shifting it occasionally from side to 

 side to suckle it, and folding it in the membranes of the tail 

 and wings. On these occasions her usual position was reversed. 

 In the evening she was found dead ; but the young was still 

 alive, and attached to the nipple, from which it was with some 

 difficulty removed. It took milk from a sponge, was kept 

 carefully wrapped up in flannel, and survived eight days, at the 

 end of which period its eyes were not opened and it had 

 acquired very little hair." 



Daniell's remarks are in part borne out, in part opposed, 

 by those of Mr Whitaker,^ who has added not a little to our 

 knowledge of young Noctules. In Mr Whitaker's case a 

 female gave birth to her single young one on 30th June. 

 Her attitude was the normal one, with the head downwards. 

 " As soon as ever the head of the baby Bat protruded it com- 

 menced to squeak lustily. The young was quite free in about 

 four minutes' time, and worked its way under the shoulder of 

 its mother, and so round on to her back, where it clung quite 

 exposed, head downwards. . . . The note of the young 

 Noctule is a single chirrup even more highly pitched than 

 the note of the adult. It is so penetrating that when but a 

 few days old I could hear the young Bat calling after I had 

 gone to bed at night, though it was in a cage downstairs, and 

 in a room not directly under my bedroom." For some time the 

 mother appeared disinclined to recognise her offspring, but at 



^ Naturalist, 1905, 325-330. 



