172 VESPERTILIONID^— MYOTIS 



case when my Whiskered Bat dropped a mealworm. A Long- 

 eared Bat which I kept for a few days invariably thrust its head 

 into the interfemoral pouch on seizing a moth. Both Long- 

 eared and Whiskered Bats have the tail curved beneath them 

 during flight, although they are usually figured with it held 

 straight behind them ; and I have little doubt that when on the 

 wing they actually use the method I have described for securing 

 their prey. Further observation will probably show that this 

 curious habit is common to all our British species, with the 

 possible exception of the Horseshoe Bats, in which the inter- 

 femoral membrane is comparatively small, and the tail, during 

 repose at any rate, is carried in a very different way. 



" Having firmly secured its prey, whether moth or meal- 

 worm, by the head or tail, my Whiskered Bat used to swallow 

 it lengthwise, crunching it thoroughly by rapid movements of 

 the jaws as it slowly disappeared. Neither foot nor carpus was 

 ever used in any way to assist it in capturing or holding an 

 insect. The use of either would, of course, be quite impossible 

 during flight. Moths and spiders moving near it were pounced 

 upon and captured, but mealworms disassociated from my 

 fingers seemed to puzzle it, and only once did I see it capture 

 one itself, although the creatures frequently crawled just before 

 its eyes and over its wings and feet. The wings and legs of 

 moths were always dropped, but once or twice a wing accident- 

 ally encountered in the Bat's ramble about the table was 

 picked up and eaten. The mealworms were, as a rule, entirely 

 consumed, but sometimes the horny heads were left." 



BECHSTEIN'S BAT. 

 MYOTIS BECHSTEINI (Kuhl). 



1818. Vespertilio bechsteinii, Heinrich Kuhl, Neue Ann. der Wetterauischen 



Gesellschaft fiir die gesammte Naturkunde, I., i., 30, pi. 22 ; described from Hanau, 



Germany, from Leisler's MSS. ; Jenyns ; Bell (ed. i) ; MacGillivray ; Blasius ; 



Clermont ; Fatio ; Bell (ed. 2) ; Dobson ; Flower and Lydekker ; Lydekker ; 



E. T. Newton, Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. (London), August 1899, 420 ; Winge. 

 1829. Nystactes bechsteinii, Jakob Kaup, System der Europdischen Thierwelt, 



i., 106, 108-9. 

 1842. Myotis bechsteinii, J. E. Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Dec, 258 ; 



Fitzinger ; Thomas, Zoologist, 1898, 100; Mehely ; Johnston; Millais. 

 1856. Myotus bechsteinii, F. a. Kolenati, Algemeine deutsche Naturhist. Zeitung 



(Dresden), Neue Folge, ii., 131 and 179. 



