COMMON BAT, PIPISTRELLE OR FLITTER-MOUSE in 



time, to be at length dispelled by Leonard Jenyns, who 

 reviewed the whole question in 1829, and clearly demonstrated 

 that the Common Bat of Britain is the Pipistrelle of European 

 zoologists. 



The widespread abundance of this bat, the lengthened 

 duration of its period of activity, and its love for the neigh- 

 bourhood of dwellings, make it to most people more familiar 

 than any other, if we except only the Long-eared, which 

 is in many localities as common. The only species likely 

 to be mistaken for it is the Whiskered, which it closely 

 resembles in size, in mode of flight, and in many of its 

 habits. So close is the resemblance that when flying it is 

 no easy matter to distinguish them. However, it is believed 

 generally that, while the Whiskered Bat often feeds amongst 

 trees, snatching its prey while at rest on the leaves or branches, 

 the Pipistrelle usually feeds near them, and takes its food 

 preferably on the wing. Even this distinction, however, 

 may not bear investigation, and the difficulties surrounding 

 the observation of small bats on the wing are so numerous, 

 that the differentiation of these two species in life must 

 be regarded as one of the most difficult tasks which confront 

 a field naturalist in Britain. 



Sometimes the Pipistrelle flies alone in some sequestered 

 nook ; at other times, especially on windy evenings, a number 

 will gather together to tread an aerial dance, the passing by of 

 two at close range often leading to a spirited encounter and 

 chase. The small area over which it hunts, and the frequently 

 restricted extent of its beat are very noticeable, and Mr Charles 

 Oldham tells me that this is also true even when the animal 

 is flying over open country, where there is no natural boundary 

 such as a wall, house or fence. It is probably one of the species 

 which in winter time appears inside churches, distracting the 

 attention of the congregation from the evening service, and 

 causing scandalised rectors to set forth their grievances in the 

 public press in hopes that some zoologist may point the way 

 to relief.^ It was, perhaps, this trespassing in churches that 

 led to the inclusion of bats in the churchwardens' accounts of 

 the parishes of St Paul's, Bedford, and Dean in Bedfordshire, 



1 Field, 23rd June 1906, 1044. 



