'"> s NATURAL HISTORY 



evolutions and quick turns of the swallow genus. But 

 the circumstance that pleased me most was, that 1 saw 



length the entire body and head. The common long-eared bat, Plecotus 

 auritus, GEOFF, is frequent in the vicinity of houses : the expansion of its 

 wings is fully ten inches. A second long-eared bat, which has been 

 suspected to be the young of the former, has been described by the 

 Rev. L. Jenyns as differing from it in many particulars, and especially in 

 the comparative shortness of its fingers, whence he has called it brevima- 

 nus: the expansion of its wings is less than seven inches. Of this latter 

 the only individual that has yet occurred was taken from a tree. 



All the other bats that have yet been captured in England have their 

 ears distinct from each other, and belong to the genus Vcspertilio, which 

 is still an extensive one, notwithstanding the numerous dismemberments 

 to which it has been subjected. Of these some have the ears as long as, 

 or slightly longer than, the head: such are the Vesp. Murinus, DKSM. and 

 Vesp. Bechsteinii, LI.I-I... in which the tragus is about half the length of 

 the auricle, is somewhat expanded on its outer side just above its base, 

 and terminates in a point, the latter species being^most readily distin- 

 guishable by its exceedingly slender thumb; and the Vesp. Natter, ri. 

 KUHL, in which the tragus is linear, and full two-thirds of the length of 

 the auricle. Others, and these the more numerous, have the auricle not 

 so long as the head. In Vesp. niystacinus, LEISL., the tragus is half as 

 long as the auricle, and is lanceolate: in Vesp. enwrginatus, GEOFF., the 

 tragus is also half the length of the somewhat lengthened ear, but is 

 subulate: in Vesp. pygnueus, LEACH, the tragus is of the same comparative 

 length as in the two preceding, and is subulate ; the species being distin- 

 guished (if, indeed, it be a species and not the young of some other, 

 perhaps of the Vesp. Serotinus) by its very diminutive size, the expansion 

 of its wings being scarcely more than five inches: in Vesp. .SV/W/MMX, 

 GM EI,., the tragus is also subulate, but is not half the length of the ear : 

 in Vesp. discolor, N.vrr, the tragus is scarcely one-third the length of the 

 ear, and of almost equal breadth throughout: in the pipistrelle, Vesp. 

 Pipistrdlus, GMEL., which is the bat of most frequent occurrence in 

 England, (where, on account of its diminutive size as compared with the 

 noctule, it is often called the mouse-bat,) the tragus is half the length of 

 the ear, and is terminated by a rounded head ; the expansion of its wings 

 is rather more than eight inches : in the remaining two species, which are 

 nearly of a uniform chestnut colour both above and below, the tragus has 

 almost the same form as in the last, and in the Vesp. Leisleri, KLHL., 14 

 scarcely smaller than in the pipistrelle; while in the noctule, Vesp. 

 Noctvla, GMEL , it is much reduced in size, bein# little more than one 

 quarter of the length of the ear, and consists of a rather broad base, 

 becoming expanded towards the tip, especially on the outer side, so 

 widely as to form a head about twice the breadth of the stem that 

 supports it. The noctule is the largest of the English bats, except the 

 rare Vesp. Murinus, its wings extending, when expanded, to the width of 

 fourteen inches: it occurs more frequently than any of the others, with 

 the exception of the pipistrelle (erroneously named JY.s-/). Mi'rinus by all 



