MAMMALS. 39 



PIPISTRELLE, or COMMON BAT. Although this Bat 

 V. pipistvellus. is common all over the County, it is 



not so numerous in Shropshire as the 

 Long-eared. It is, however, more often seen than any 

 other species because it comes abroad at times when all 

 the other Bats are hibernating. Indeed, even in mid- 

 winter the Pipistrelle has been known to come out, 

 roused from its slumbers by unusually warm weather, 

 and it commonly terminates its period of hibernation in 

 March. It is found in all kinds of holes and corners in 

 buildings, and numbers may be seen on any warm 

 evening flying over the English and Welsh Bridges at 

 Shrewsbury, and doubtless they spend the day in the 

 crannies below the arches of the same. It is very likely, 

 however, that some of the Bats seen there belong to the 

 next species, which is especially fond of the neighbour- 

 hood of water. The Pipistrelle is the smallest of our 

 Bats, and flies with an unsteady fluttering motion of the 

 wings whence country people call it the flitter-mouse 

 turning and winding in all directions. It never flies 

 high up like the Noctule, nor so low down as the 

 Daubenton's Bat, but generally at a moderate elevation. 

 It does not avoid man, but may often be seen flitting 

 along streets and around houses even in large towns. 

 It even comes out occasionally in daylight, and the 

 writer once saw one in Scotland hawking for flies along 

 with numbers of Swallows and Martins in the full blaze 

 of a July mid-day sun, and apparently quite as happy 

 as the Birds, Like the other Bats, the Pipistrelle has 

 usually only a single young one at a birth. Length from 

 head to tail, 3 inches. Colour, dark brown. The ears 

 are small, and the face deeply depressed behind the black 



