42 THE COMMON OR LITTLE BAT. 



air literally ; swarmed with them all along the 

 Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at a time*. 

 The voice of these Bats is a sharp stridulous note 

 or scream; and this is repeatedly uttered during 

 their flight. Whenever I roused my animals from 

 their diurnal sleep, they opened their mouths quite 

 wide, and made this weak kind of screeching noise. 

 Neither the Common nor the Long-eared Bats 



have any offensive smell, like many of the other 

 species. 



In Wales the Common Bat is called ystlum: in 

 France, chauve-souris, or chauve-souris commune : 

 in Italy, nottola, notula: in Spain, murcielago, mor- 

 cielago: in Portugal, morugo, morcego : in Ger- 

 many, flaedermuss : in Holland, vledcrmuus: in 

 Sweden, laderlapp: in Denmark, jlaggermuus: in 

 Poland, nietopcrsz: in Norway, skind-vinge: in 

 Russia, netopyr, letuczqja-misck. 



These names, however, are often applied indis- 

 criminately to other species of Bats, as well as to 

 the present. 



* White's Works, i. p. '27. 



THE 



