THE MOUSE-EARED BAT 191 



More.^ In 1903, however, Mr J. Lewis Bonhote^ noticed a 

 genuinely British-killed specimen in the University Museum of 

 Cambridge. This was taken at Girton in 1888 by a lady who 

 broupfht it alive to Dr Hans Gadow. 



This species has suffered much at the hands of slipshod 

 nomenclaturists. It is clearly the Vespertilio myosotis of Bech- 

 stein,^ and is as certainly the type of Jakob Kaup's genus 

 Myotis of 1829, so that there can be no doubt about its 

 correct title, according to modern usages. Unfortunately, 

 however, the majority of continental naturalists, beginning 

 with Schreber in 1775, finding it their commonest or most 

 conspicuous bat, supposed that it must be also the ** Common 

 Bat," Vespertilio murinus of Linnaeus, and thereupon trans- 

 ferred the latter name to it, whereas, as has been already shown 

 (p. 51), the bat thus designated is a very different species. 

 Unfortunately the confusion did not stop at this point, since 

 British naturalists, following the lead of their continental 

 brethren, applied the name murinus to the Pipistrelle, the 

 Common Bat of their country. 



Considering that this bat is reputed to be one of the most 

 frequent on the European continent, even in those countries, 

 such as Normandy, which are separated from England only by 

 the breadth of the channel, it is very remarkable that it should 

 be unknown as a regular inhabitant of Britain. But it cannot 

 be doubted that Bell was correct in believing that, were it really 

 British, its large size and the comparative ease with which 

 specimens can be obtained, would long since have brought it 

 under notice. Mr Bonhote repeats this argument in regard to 

 the Cambridge example, which, although undoubtedly killed in 

 Britain, must, he thinks, have been brought over accidentally 

 from the continent. 



The Mouse-eared Bat, should it occur again in Britain, 

 can hardly be mistaken for any other. In size it is at least 

 the equal of, perhaps superior to, our three largest species, the 

 Noctule, Serotine, and Greater Horseshoe. In form it is 

 rather, however, a large Bechstein's Bat, with relatively smaller 



1 Zoologist, 1894, 148. 2 Jbid., 1903, 387. 



^ Der Zoologe, v.-viii., 46, 1797, corrected to V. ?>iyotis hy Bechstein, in Gemeinut' 

 zige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands, Qr'c., I., ed. 2, 1154, 1801. 



