38 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



rest, almost always turns round and suspends itself by 

 its hind feet, which, like the thumbs, are furnished with 

 sharp hooked claws. The Long-eared Bat while on the 

 wing utters a shrill squeak : so shrill or high-pitched is 

 this cry that many people's ears are unable to perceive 

 it. The female is said to produce only one at a birth, 

 and folds her wings around it while suckling, the baby 

 also clinging to the mother by its little claws. Length 

 from head to tail, 3^ inches. Colour, brown above, 

 whitish beneath, but the basal part of each hair is 

 black. 



NOCTULE, or GREAT BAT. This is the largest of our 

 Vespenigo noctula. Bats, and when seen in the air appears 



even larger than it is on account of the 

 width of the wing membrane and the light colour of its 

 fur. It is partial to the neighbourhood of trees, and 

 usually sleeps in holes in them. It comes abroad early 

 in the evening and flies high in the air where the large 

 beetles, on which it loves to feed, chiefly abound. This 

 habit of flying high up in the air is as characteristic of 

 this species amongst Bats as it is of the Swift amongst 

 Birds. It is gregarious, as many as fifty having been 

 taken out of one hole, and has a peculiar disagreeable 

 odour, which is very perceptible when any number are 

 found together. The two sexes are said to hibernate 

 in distinct colonies from October to April, and are found 

 then in larger numbers together than during summer. 

 One, rarely two, young are produced at a birth, and they 

 are at first blind and naked. The Noctule seems to be 

 pretty generally distributed through Shropshire, especially 

 in the neighbourhood of water, but is not so numerous 

 as the Long-eared. Length from head to tail, 5 inches ; 

 Colour, light yellowish brown, with blackish wings. 



