18 VESPERTILIONnm 



described it and given a figure of the head, in the Me- 

 moirs of the French Academy for 1759; and Buffon 

 subsequently gave it a place in his great work. The 

 first notice of its occurrence as a British species is in 

 White's " Natural History of Selborne," in which it is 

 repeatedly mentioned. This writer gave it the name of 

 altivolans, from a peculiarity which did not escape this 

 close observer of nature. 



We have seen it at Selborne for several successive 

 years, and probably on the very spot where its venerable 

 discoverer first observed it. In one summer, a pair of 

 them came every evening out of a large beech in the 

 grounds of the residence of one of the authors of this 

 work, for their regular vesper tinal flight. We have 

 often seen them flying over the whole length of the 

 beautiful ravine between the Lithe and Dorton wood, in 

 Selborne, at an altitude equal to the tops of the trees 

 on the hill on each side, and occasionally dipping down 

 towards the stream to seize their insect food. 



In Warwickshire, as in Hampshire, the Noctule 

 appears to be a tree-loving species, not a single instance 

 having come to our knowledge of its retirement to 

 buildings during the day, although it has been frequently 

 seen in the holes of trees. A grove of old oaks near 

 Alcester, which was much frequented by the Vespertilio 

 Daubentonii, was a favourite haunt also of the present 

 species ; and at Ragley, a seat of the Marquis of Hert- 

 ford, in a similar grove, their excrement has sometimes 

 lain so thick as to darken the ground under some of the 

 more ancient trees. In another locality, near to Strat- 

 ford-on-Avon, we have known a considerable number 

 dislodged from a hole made by the green woodpecker 

 in an elm, by the insertion of a flexible stick. Now, 

 within convenient distance of these several localities, 



