52 THE LESSER HORSE-SHOE BAT. 



intelligent naturalist, in the ninth volume of the 

 Linnean Transactions, stated his grounds for believ- 

 ing the small one to constitute a distinct species, it 

 had uniformly been considered, both in England 

 and on the continent, as only a variety of the other. 

 It is now many years since he first noticed these 

 Bats in Wiltshire. Once, in particular, he was shown 

 a great number of them which had been found in 

 the winter, over the jiollow of a baker's oven, into 

 which they had crept through a small external fis- 

 sure. About the latter end of May, 1804, he ob- 

 served several of the same kind in an old building, 

 erected for the shelter of cattle, at the verge of a 

 wood, at Lackham, in the same county. In this 

 dark and shaded abode, surrounded by lofty rocks, 

 it is not, he says, unusual to see many of them ad- 

 hering to the .plaistered roof by their hind claws. 

 When approached, they generally crawl a little to 

 one side, and show signs of uneasiness by moving 

 their heads about in various directions; but they 

 never seem inclined to take flight till they have 

 been repeatedly disturbed. 



Teeth very smalt. The Horse-shoe Bat has in the upper jaw 'two 

 minute distant front-teeth, which are not found in this. Eyes very 

 small, black, and hidden in the fur. Ears large, pointed, and turned 

 a little back at the tips: their base almost surrounds the opening; 

 but at the outer part in each there is a notch that admits of the fore- 

 part of the ear closing within the other, as a substitute for an inner 

 valve, of which this species is destitute. Teats in the female four, 

 two on the breast, and two on the lower part of the abdomen, close 

 to the pubis. 



Co/0i*rpale rufous brown above, but most rufous on the upper part 

 of the head. Col. Montagu, in Linn. Tran. vol. ix. p. 163. 



FER/E. 



