THE SEROTINE 131 



Distrilbution : — Bats of this type have a remarkably wide distribu- 

 tion, being found over the greater part of the known world. In 

 the Palaearctic Region they range from north Germany, south 

 Russia, and corresponding latitudes in Siberia southwards to the 

 Barbary States, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Arabia, Persia, Kashmir, 

 China, and probably Japan, ascending in the Harz Mountains to 2000, 

 and in the southern Alps to 4000 feet. Representative or allied forms 

 of the old world are mentioned under variation. 



In North America the closely allied V. fusais of Beauvois ranges 

 throughout the austral, transitional, and the lower edges of the 

 boreal zones, and has sub-species in (i) Costa Rica, Guatemala, and 

 southern Mexico, (2) in Guatemala and Nicaragua, (3) the Bahamas, 

 (4) Cuba, and probably elsewhere. 



In the British Isles the Serotine is entirely confined to the south 

 of England. The first British record, that of Gray for London in 

 1826 {Zoological Journal^ ii., 109), was almost certainly made in error, but 

 it had the effect of introducing the species into the works of Jenyns, 

 Bell (ed. i), and MacGillivray, to all of whom no other locality was 

 known. In 1846 it attracted the attention of H. N. Turner at Folke- 

 stone {Zoologist, 1847, 1635), and in or before 185 1 of Bury and Borrer in 

 the Isle of Wight {Journ. cit., 1874, 4126), to be followed by Martin's, 

 More's, and Guyon's experience of it in the same island previously 

 to 1854 {Journ. cit., 1854, 4179; see also 1856, 5216). Since then 

 numerous observers have detected it in the south-eastern counties, 

 between the valley of the Thames and the Channel, as in Sussex (Borrer, 

 Zoologist, 1874, 4126, and 1893, 223; Lilford, 1887, 65; Ellis, Field, 

 14th Oct. 1893, 597, and Zoologist, 1893, 45^; Jeffrey, 1894, 261; 

 Butterfield, 1897, 141); in Hampshire {lAX^oxd, Joiirn. cit., 1887, 65; 

 Kelsall, 1891, 395); in Kent (Harting,/c'?^;7/. cit., 1890, 380, and 1891, 

 203 ; Dowker, 1891, 305 and 424). It appears to be numerous in many 

 parts of Kent. It is rarer, although frequenting many localities, in 

 Sussex, and rarer still in Hampshire. In Wight, fifty years ago, More 

 found it a common species ; some later observers describe it as rare, but 

 Wadham finds it very common and widely distributed. Jersey has one 

 record (Bunting). 



In the west it is almost unknown, or has escaped notice, but is 

 said to have been obtained near Newquay in 1902, and near Lostwithiel 

 in 1906, and to be not uncommon about Forth (Clark), while one from 

 Tintagel Castle, all in Cornwall, is in the British Museum (see Dobson). 

 D'Urban, in a letter to Hollis, connects with this species certain large 

 bats, of which he saw flights at Exmouth, Devon, on 24th Sept. 1892. 



North of the Thames the Serotine must be regarded as very rare. 

 Harting denies its occurrence in Middlesex {Zoologist, 1891, 203), 

 and cites, on the authority of Bond, Dartford Heath, Kent, as its 



