BECHSTEIN'S BAT 177 



Bond, but later assigned by Messrs Millais and J. E. Harting 

 to Natterer's Bat ; ^ and that of a specimen in the Oxford 

 Museum, taken at Godstow, in Berkshire, by Frank Norton, 

 which was mentioned by H. A. Macpherson as Bechstein's,^ 

 but referred by the Rev. J. E. KelsalP to Natterer's Bat. 



The habits of Bechstein's Bat have never been studied in 

 detail. Blasius writes that in Germany its haunts are woods 

 or large orchards and the neighbourhood of buildings, where 

 it lives in small, dry holes in trees. It commences its flight late 

 in the evening, flying slowly and at a low elevation over lanes 

 and forest roadways, and may be recognised while on the 

 wing by its long ears. It is said not to appear until late in the 

 spring, to fly only in fine, calm weather, and not to venture 

 abroad in winter. In Germany, Blasius on two occasions 

 found one young one with its mother, and, about eighty years 

 ago, on 9th June, C. L. Brehm* took a party of twenty- 

 two females, of which seventeen proved to be pregnant with 

 young almost ready for birth. Kuhl also found as many as 

 thirteen females together. The occurrence of so many 

 examples of one sex together in the breeding season suggests 

 that in this respect the habits of this bat may resemble those 

 of the Noctule. Mr Millais' example was lying in a crevice 

 close to a couple of Natterer's Bats. It was wide awake, and 

 when handled remonstrated by biting and uttering a series of 

 querulous screeches, not unHke the cries of a very young 

 child. Mr Wadham's bats were taken at dusk near a withy 

 bed and small group of trees, from which the Lukely runs for 

 about a hundred yards by open meadows to a large mill pond 

 and reed bed. 



The long unnotched ears of this bat differentiate it 

 absolutely from all the other British members of its genus. 

 Natterer's Bat approaches it most nearly, but the relatively 

 longer tragus, slightly notched ears, and ciliated posterior 

 margin of the interfemoral membrane in that species are 

 quite distinctive. 



1 Harting, Zoologist, 1887, 162 ; Millais, British Mammals, i., 98. 



2 Midland Naturalist, 1883, 153. ^ Z^(3/<?gw/, 1884, 483 ; 1885, 146. 

 '' Ornis (Jena), 1827, iii.. No. 3, 20. 



