CLASS MAMMALIA. 33 



says (Zoologist, 1843, P- 6) that it occurs at Epping. A mild 

 and gentle creature, it is by no means difficult to tame. This 

 is the bat most frequently caught in houses, which it enters by 

 the open window, often much to the consternation of the 

 female members of the household. 



There is no difficulty in distinguishing this bat. Its 

 remarkable ears, which are fully as long as its body, cause 

 it to be unmistakable. No other existing animal, so far 

 as I know, has ears in this undue proportion, except Plecotus 

 homochrous, which occurs in the Himalayas and is a ques- 

 tionable species (cf. Dobson's Asiatic Chiroptera, 1876, p. 85). 

 If this is only a variety, then the animal under consideration 

 is, in respect of ears, unique. Although so large, the ears do 

 not strike one as so disproportionate as those of a lop-eared 

 rabbit, which in comparison are really much smaller. 



Group II. VESPERTILIONES, Dobson. 



Genus VESPERUGO, Keys and Bias. 



Vesperugo serotinus, Gmel. SEROTINE. 



This must be a very rare bat in Essex, as I have never 

 had the good luck to meet with a specimen. Mr. Miller 

 Christy, however, has been much more fortunate, and he has 

 been able to record the occurrence of the only two examples 

 ever noted in the county. The first he mentions (Zoologist, 

 1883, p. 173, and Proc. Essex Field Club, vol. iv., p. iv.) was 

 in the possession of Mrs. Joseph Smith, of Great Saling, and 

 had been shot, more than twenty years previously, in the 

 garden of Pattiswick Hall, Coggeshall. The second (Zoologist, 

 1894, p. 423, and Essex Nat., vol.viii., p. 162) he captured himself, 

 it having entered his bedroom window at Pryors, Broomfield, 

 on the night of the 25th August, 1894. These two captures 

 appear to be the most northerly ones recorded for the species. 

 Mr. Christy has taken every care that there should be no 



