MAMMALS 



5. Natterer's Bat. Myolit nattereri, Kuhl. 

 Bell fespertiKo nattereri. 

 Locally, Reddish-grey Bat. 



Rare. I was first enabled to add this species, which 

 is rather rare in Britain, from having determined a 

 specimen which I saw in the possession of the late 

 Rev. A. Matthews, who informed me that it was caught 

 in his house at Gumley many years ago he could not 

 recall the exact date. Since then, Clarke, the sexton 

 at Aylestone Church, brought me a specimen which he 

 found dead in the church on 3 1 July, 1887, and which 

 was the first ever acquired by the Leicester Museum. 

 Being quite sure there were more of them in the 

 church, I purchased a 'bat-fowling' net, and went there 

 on the evening of 12 August, 1887. There were 

 numbers of bats flying inside and outside of the 

 church ; but choosing the inside, I stationed myself 

 by one of the windows of the chancel, between which 

 and a stove-pipe the bats were flitting. After two 

 hours' work and several misses, I managed to catch 

 three pipistrelles and one natterer's bat. The flight 

 of the two species varied much, the pipistrelles flying 

 quicker, and constantly changing the direction of their 

 flight, in a zig-zag kind of manner, whereas the flight 

 of the natterer's bat was more fully sustained and much 

 more direct, though somewhat slower. The specimen, 

 which was a male, was very amiable in captivity, and 

 we fed it two or three times with pieces of raw meat 

 soaked in water, which it greedily seized when hungry, 

 making, however, very little progress, a small piece the 

 size of a barleycorn lasting it a quarter of an hour. 



Cold weather supervening, it finally died after nine 

 days. 



I purchased another alive from Clarke, the sexton, 

 on 20 July, 1889, caught at Aylestone Church, and 

 one, also from Aylestone, on 8 August, 1889 

 both males. 



6. Daubenton's Bat. Myotis daubentml, Leisler. 



Bell Vespertine Jaubentonii. 



Rare. An adult female of this species was brought 

 to me, whilst still alive, on 19 June, 1885, having 

 been shot with a catapult on the evening of the 1 7th 

 whilst flying over water at Aylestone, by Mr. George 

 Snoad, who kindly presented it to the museum. 



7. Whiskered Bat. Myotis mystacinus, Leisler. 



Bell VespertlRo mystacinus. 



After considerable search, extending over many 

 years, aided also by a large number of observers, and 

 getting a great many pipistrelles, this rare little bat 

 has been found in the county, through the exertions 

 of Mr. G. Kirby, of Lubenham Lodge, who kindly 

 forwarded to the Leicester Museum a young male speci- 

 men, taken in his garden on 17 September, 1888. 



The writer received another (a female) from Mr. 

 Ernest Neale, caught on Manor Road, West Leigh, 

 Leicester, on 24 April, 1889. A male specimen, 

 caught in the drawing-room at Broughton Astley 

 rectory on 19 July, 1889, was sent to me the follow- 

 ing day, dead, by the Rev. G. D. Armitage, who 

 sent me another, also a male, on 24 July, from the 

 same place. 



INSECTIVORA 



8. Hedgehog. Erinaceus europaeus, Linn. 



Resident and generally distributed. I have received 

 several from Knighton, close to the town of Leicester, 

 where it breeds. On 13 September, 1883, an old 

 female hedgehog and four young ones were brought 

 to me from there. Another, caught also at Knighton, 

 we endeavoured to keep. It remained for some time 

 in the workroom at the Leicester Museum, hiding itself 

 during the day under the box of a step leading from 

 one room into another. It, however, refused all food, 

 though apparently very hungry, and soon died. 



9. Mole. Talpa europaea, Linn. 



Resident and common, though seldom seen above 

 ground. Harley wrote : ' Buff and white, or parti- 

 coloured individuals occasionally occur,' although a 

 mole-catcher of more than fifty years' experience once 

 told him that he had never met with any such varieties. 

 One in the Leicester Museum is labelled 'From 

 Belvoir. Mr. Jno. Ryder.' This specimen I find 

 noted in the old MS. donation-book as being pre- 

 sented on 25 April, 1862. It is of a uniform cream- 

 colour, inclining to ferruginous on the limbs. The 

 late Rev. A. Matthews, of Gumley, showed me one 

 precisely similar, caught by a mole-catcher in an adjoin- 

 ing parish during the first week of June, 1884, the 

 man stating at the time that he had met with several 

 other examples during the course of his trapping. 1 



Zoo/. (1884), p. 271. 



Curiously enough, Mr. Matthews procured another 

 on 20 March, 1885, which had been caught in a 

 trap at Laughton Hills. He described it as being 

 the handsomest he ever saw, a large male of an amber 

 colour, with the nose white nearly to the eyes, cheeks 

 and back of the head and neck bright orange. Mr. 

 Ingram sent one to the museum, caught in Barkcstone 

 Wood, Belvoir, on 10 June, 1887, and precisely 

 similar to the one sent from the same locality twenty- 

 five years previously. I saw in the hands of Pinchen, 

 the taxidermist, a similar variety, taken at Anstey in 

 December, 1887; and Mr. John Burgess, of Sad- 

 dington, presented to the museum a very fine one 

 which was caught there on 10 March, 1888. This 

 specimen was also like the others, but rather more 

 reddish-orange on its ventral aspect ; again, on 

 12 December, 1890, he presented another, a male, 

 from the same place, and a third in 1893, both 

 precisely similar. It would thus appear that there 

 is a constant variety of the mole in which part of 

 the head and the joints of the limbs are ferruginous, 

 and the remainder of the body cream-coloured. 

 Mr. H. B. Oldham, of Saxby, presented to the 

 museum a female variety caught by a mole-catcher at 

 Saxby, amongst a number of normal specimens, on 

 8 February, 1890. The upper su Ace was of a warm, 

 silver-grey, owing to the tips of thF hairs being that 

 colour. The front of the head was of a greyish rufous; 

 chin and throat bright golden rufous, this colour ex- 

 tending to the manus. A light rufous line ran along 

 the abdominal region, broadening out about the centre 



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