THE ROUGH-LEGGED WATER BAT 157 



foot or carpus as a means of securing a firm hold of the prey, 

 and it is possible that on this point Tomes, who certainly 

 did not altogether understand the meaning of the pouching 

 manoeuvre, was mistaken, especially as he states that it was not 

 easy to make an accurate observation, from the operation being 

 so much concealed by the body of the animal. 



Unlike some other species, Mr Oldham's bats were par- 

 ticularly averse to light, running beneath objects on the table 

 and getting into the shade as much as possible. 



Daubenton's Bat is fortunately one of those the identifica- 

 tion of which when in its typical haunts is easy. A careful 

 search for it in suitable localities ought to reveal its presence 

 in every county of England and Wales, as well as very widely 

 in Scotland and Ireland. The use of the remarkably large 

 foot is not understood, and is a question well worthy of further 

 study. The suggestion that the bats of this group are cave- 

 dwellers, while the remainder of the genus live mainly in 

 trees,^ appears to be untenable. They may well be called 

 Water Bats, from their habit of flying over streams, ponds, 

 and lakes in the peculiar manner of the sole British member of 

 the group, 



[THE ROUGH-LEGGED WATER BAT. 



MYOTIS DASYCNEME (Boie).^ 



The Rough-legged Water Bat was included in the British 

 list by Sir Harry Johnston and Mr Richard Lydekker, although 

 excluded by most other naturalists. Its claim to be considered 

 a British species rests upon the authority of R. F. Tomes,^ 

 who thus identified a specimen taken upon the banks of the 

 Stour by G. B. Buckton. Buckton^ himself regarded his 

 specimen as a variety of Daubenton's Bat, and alluded to it 

 under the name emargmatus, a name not infrequently applied 

 to that bat by British naturalists of the period. It was 

 probably Buckton's record which caused Dobson^ to include 

 southern England in the area of distribution of the present 



' Dobson, Catalogue of Chiropter a, 285. 



^ F. Boie, Oken's Isis (Jena), 1825, 1200. 



^ Zoologist, 1854, 4361 ; 1856, 4938. 



* Proc. Linnean Soc. (London), 1853, 260 (pub. 1855), 



^ Catalogue of Chiroptera, 296. 



