\ 



V 



i68 ^^ VESPERTILIONID^— MYOTIS 



we have never seen one on the wing, we have often found food 

 in the alimentary canal on dissection, and, indeed, food in 

 abundance is close at hand, as the tunnels are resorted to in 

 winter by a spider, two species of Moth . . .,^ and myriads of 

 flies.^ No bats are to be found in these tunnels during the 

 warmer months of the year." In Mr Heatley Noble's big 

 artificial cave near Henley-on-Thames, Mr A. H. Cocks and 

 Dr E. A. Wilson^ found seven on 14th February, all near one 

 of the entrances, but in summer this cave is deserted by all bats. 



The Whiskered Bat is frequently seen abroad during the 

 day, probably more so than any other British species, and it is 

 also one of those which appear on fine days — at least in the 

 south — throughout the winter. Mr G. B. Moffat records it as 

 flying at a temperature of 48° Fahrenheit on 21st January, 

 in Ireland; Borrer * received one shot near Dover in the mild 

 January of 1853; Mr William Evans' Dunbar specimen was 

 taken on 20th March, and Mr T. W. Proger sends me word 

 that he has observed it abroad in south Wales on 21st December 

 1903, and in Wiltshire at the end of November of the same 

 year. But the too frequent confusion of this species with the 

 Pipistrelle makes a series of reliable observations impossible. 

 Little is known about the duration of the nightly flight. 

 Probably, however, it begins early in the evening, Mr Oldham 

 having noticed one on the wing at 7.30 r.M. in broad daylight 

 in the latter end of May : ^ it may also last all night, since I 

 caught one in my house between one and two o'clock on the 

 morning of 26th July. 



Only the most vague information is available about the breed- 

 ing habits of this bat. Tomes' statement that its single young 

 — the number verified by dissection — is brought forth about 

 the end of June or in July, corroborates, as regards the number 

 at least, the experience of Blasius, for Germany. Messrs H. J. 

 Charbonnier and C. Lloyd Morgan ^ found that of some 

 hundreds obtained at Willsbridge, near Kevnsham, Bristol. 



^ Gonoptera lihairix and Scotosia dubitata. 



2 Of which the most abundant are Blepharoptera serrata, Borborus niger, and a 

 species of Culex. 



3 Zoologist, 1906, 186 ; also, Wilson, in lit. * Zoologist, 1874, 4128. 

 ^ Naturalist^ 1897, 242. " Charbonnier, see Somerset, i., 164. 



