104 COMMON BAT, OR PIPISTRELLE. 



The Reverend Leonard Jenyns, in an elaborate 

 paper in the 16th volume of the Transactions of the 

 Linnaean Society, first satisfactorily showed that the 

 common Bat of this country is the Pipistrelle of 

 Daubenton, Buffon, and other Continental authors, 

 and not their Chauve-souris, or Vespertilio murinus, 

 which, so far from being common with us, is one of 

 the rarest of our species. The following descrip- 

 tion is drawn up from specimens obtained in Scot- 

 land, where it is very abundant. 



The head is oblong, convex behind, flattened 

 before ; the muzzle short, and obtuse ; the eyes 

 extremely small, and with difficulty perceptible 

 among the hair ; the nostrils terminal, opening an- 

 teriorly by a rounded aperture surrounded by a 

 thickened margin, which has a slit in the outer and 

 upper part, the space between them slightly con- 

 cave ; the mouth opening to beneath the eyes ; the 

 upper lip thick, with a deep longitudinal sulcus be- 

 hind. The ears are shorter than the head, directed 

 obliquely outwards and forwards, of an irregular 

 ovato-triangular or semicordate form, obtuse, the 

 inner margin with a rounded lobe at the base, and 

 two prominent lines, the outer sinuate above the 

 middle, with two very small tubercles near the 

 base, and four distinct transverse rugae on the upper 

 part ; the tragus oblong, rounded, curved inwards, 

 and concave anteriorly. The body is short, de- 

 pressed, anteriorly broad ; the neck short and thick. 

 The anterior limb or wing has the pollex extremely 



