60 THE BRITISH MAMMALS : THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 



the smallest up to albacores and bonitos, bat its main diet consists 

 of squids and cuttles. Ambergris, a biliary concretion formed in 

 the intestine, was first identified as coming from this whale by the 

 numerous beaks of cephalopods it contains. Spermaceti is not 



SPERM WHALE. 

 (Physeter macrocephalus.) 



really sperma ceti the Latin for sperm of the whale but the oil 

 within the vast cavity above the skull. Unlike ambergris, it is not 

 peculiar to this species, that from the head of the bottle :: . . 2 being 

 just as good. 



Plecotus. Plate i. CHIROPTERA. 



3. auritus, LONG-EARED BAT. Ears united and about as long as 



the forearm, the outer edges ending in a wart at the 

 angle of the mouth. 



The Long-eared Bat has a very flat head, with the nostrils placed 

 in front of curved grooves on the upper surface of its hairy muzzle. 

 There is a wart over each eye, the eyes being small. The feet are 



LONG-EARED BAT. 

 (Plecotus auritus.) 



slender, and the wing membrane starts from the base of the toes. 

 It has thirty-six teeth in all, of which the lower prernolars number three 

 on each side. In colour it is pale brown above and whitish beneath, 



