50 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



the basal part of whicli is well haired on its upper surface. 

 Anterior upper pre-molar tooth about half the height of the last ; 

 and the middle one small and generally placed somewhat 

 internally to the line of the other teeth. General colour vary- 

 ing from greyish- to reddish-brown, the under-parts being pale 

 brown, with a suffusion of white, and the bases of all the hairs 

 dark. Length of head and body about 2}^ inches ; of tail 2^ 

 inches. 



Distribution.— The Mouse-coloured Bat — the largest represen- 

 tative of the Order recorded from Britain — is an inhabitant of 

 the greater portion of temperate Europe and Asia, as well as 

 northern Africa. Eastwards it ranges as far as the north- 

 western Himalaya and Kashmir, the variety from the latter 

 region being distinguished by its shorter ears ; while its 

 northern range includes Denmark and the southern districts 

 of England. The claim to rank as a British species originally 

 rested upon the evidence of certain specimens captured in the 

 gardens of the British Museum in Bloomsbury, some time 

 previously to the year 1835. It is suggested, indeed, in the 

 second edition of Bell's " British Quadrupeds " that, owing to 

 the confusion which, as remarked above, formerly existed 

 between the Mouse-coloured Bat and the Pipistrelle, the speci- 

 mens in question did not pertain to the present species at all. 

 If, however, a skin in the British Museum entered in Dr. 

 Dobson's "Catalogue of Chiroptera"as of English origin, be, as 

 is most probably the case, one of the specimens in question, 

 and if there be no doubt as to the bona-fide British origin 

 of the latter, then we cannot refuse to admit the right of 

 the Mouse-coloured Bat to a place in the English fauna. The 

 alleged occurrence of the species in Dorsetshire was subse- 

 quently contradicted {Zoologist^ 1887, p. 234). It has in- 

 deed been subsequently recorded by Mr. A. G. More, from 

 Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, on the evidence of certain 



