i66 VESPERTILIONID^— MYOTIS 



generally keeps close to the ground." He has never observed 

 this species frequenting the open places in woods, of which the 

 Pipistrelle is very fond. In Worcestershire, Tomes ^ has seen 

 the bats drop out of a hole under the slates of his house, 

 either singly or in twos or threes. They lost no time in getting 

 into the top of a large walnut tree, through which they passed, 

 and scattered off to other trees to feed, passing with quivering 

 flight through the branches and leaves. Other naturalists 

 such as Mr Arthur Whitaker, remark on their preference for 

 the neighbourhood of water, and Mr Charles Oldham has 

 described his observation ^ of at least one hundred feeding along 

 half a mile of the river Dane at Danebridge, near Macclesfield. 

 ** Their flight," he writes, "was slow, steady, and silent — I 

 have never heard this species squeak on the wing. Individuals 

 did not appear to wander far, but confined their attentions to 

 single pools or short stretches of the stream, where they flitted 

 about the alder bushes or threaded their way with marvellous 

 precision through the lower branches of the sycamore trees. 

 I never saw one rise to a greater height than twenty feet, 

 and often they flew within a few inches of the ground, or 

 skimmed the surface of a pool for a yard or two, only to rise 

 again and resume their flight around the alders. Even when 

 close to the surface of the river their flight could never be 

 mistaken for the continuous flight at the same level, just above 

 the surface, of the narrow-winged " Water Bat. That this 

 bat may sometimes wander to comparatively exposed situations, 

 is shown by its occurrence — the second time on record for 

 Scotland — on the links east of Dunbar, by the shores of the 

 North Sea, and again on Lambay Island, off the east coast of 

 Ireland. Like that of the Pipistrelle, its flight is often so 

 lowly as to lead to its destruction by means of sticks and caps. 

 One which came under the notice of William Borrer^ had 

 flown in broad daylight against a man's white frock, white 

 being particularly attractive to bats. Another, which came 

 into the hands of Mr Grabham,* had struck against a 

 policeman's helmet in the streets of York, while Mr Oldham ^ 

 found one hanging in a moribund condition impaled upon a 



^ Worcestershire, i., 174. - Naturalist, 1897, 242. ^ Zoologist^ 1874, 4128. 

 * Naturalist, 1899, 74. ^ Zoologist, 1899, 475. 



