4' LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



moderate size ; two of the British species belonging to the 

 former, and four to the latter group. 



I. THE ROUGH-LEGGED BAT. VESPERTILIO DASYCNEME. 



Vespertilio dasycneme, Boie, Isis 1825 p. 1200; Dobson, Cat. 



Chiroptera Brit. Mus. p. 295 (1878). 

 Vespertilio limnophilus> Temminck, Monogr. Mamm. vol. ii. 



p. 176(1839). 



Characters. Belongs to the group in which the feet are 

 relatively large, measuring from the wrist to the end of the 

 claws more than one-fourth the length of the fore-arm, and 

 the heel-spur also long, extending fully three-quarters the 

 distance from the ankle to the tail. This species is also readily 

 distinguished from the other members of the same group by 

 the form of the earlet, which has a blunt rounded tip, the inner 

 margin slightly concave, and the outer convex, thus resem- 

 bling the same appendage in the typical sub-genus of Ves- 

 perttgo. The ears also are shorter than the head, and the face 

 less hairy than in other species, characters which again recall 

 the last-named genus. On the upper surface, the fur is dark at 

 the base and light brown at the tips of the hairs ; while 

 beneath, the hairs are black at the base and white at the tips. 

 Length of head and body about 2\ inches ; of tail, 2 inches. 



Distribution. The Rough-legged Bat has long been known 

 as an inhabitant of Continental Europe, whence it extends 

 eastwards through temperate Asia, and has often been stated 

 to be a visitor to the south of England, although it is not 

 mentioned in the second edition of Bell's " British Quadru- 

 peds." Its right to be regarded as a British species appears to 

 rest on the evidence of a specimen captured on the banks of 

 the Stour, which was noticed by Backton in the " Proceed- 

 ings " of the Linnean Society, for 1853, p. 260, and regarded as 

 a variety of V. daubentoni^ although subsequently referred by 



