204 VESPERTILIONID^— PLECOTUS 



species, but there is a dearth of precise data, and those avail- 

 able are contradictory. In Buckinghamshire Mr Cocks has 

 obtained specimens in nearly every month of the year. In 

 Wales it has been observed on the wing, on each occasion in 

 sunshine, on i8th March and 4th November,^ and Mr T. W. 

 Proger once saw one come out and drink at a fountain in 

 December^ : in County Wexford it has not been detected flying 

 earlier than the 13th April, while in autumn it ceases to 

 frequent its favourite ash-trees in mid-October, yet is repeatedly 

 captured in November. But, as remarked by Messrs Alcock and 

 Moffat, these observations prove little more than that certain bats 

 were abroad on the dates stated, for the winter sleep is liable to 

 be broken by a moderate degree of warmth. They write : — 



"On December 21st, 1900, a bat of this species was found 

 hibernating at Ballyhyland, in a convenient position for obser- 

 vation in situ. The sleeping-place was a hole in a Beech-tree, 

 5|- feet above the ground. On the insertion of a finger, the Bat 

 snarled savagely enough ; but when let alone it soon relapsed 

 into an apparently profound slumber. 



"On the next day (22nd December) it was gone, having 

 evidently flown during the night. This desertion must in fair- 

 ness be ascribed to its having been disturbed, and slightly 

 alarmed, on the previous afternoon. The remainder of De- 

 cember, and the first two nights of the ensuing January, were 

 characterised by cold and frost, and during this period the hole 

 continued unoccupied. 



" The night of January 3rd was mild ; the thermometer until 

 nearly midnight remained at 46°, and the Pipistrelle was seen 

 flying. On the morning of the following day the Long-eared 

 Bat was found to have returned to its hole in the Beech-tree. 



" For about three weeks from the above date this Bat was 

 looked at every day, and often with a lantern during the night. 

 From January 4th to nth the observer detected no change of 

 attitude ; but on some of these days, when the temperature was 

 as high as 44°, the little creature fidgeted slightly during sleep. 

 On January 12th, at a temperature of 46°, it became very rest- 



1 H. E. Forest in MSS. 



2 Paper read before the Biological and Geological Section of the Cardiff 

 Naturalists' Society, March 1905, 4. 



