28 VESPERTILIONID^. 



as from its general habit and style of flying. Whilst 

 the Noctule may throughout the whole of the summer 

 be seen taking its regular evening flight, night after 

 night, near the same spot, the Leisler's Bat, on the 

 contrary, will be seen once, perhaps for a few minutes 

 only, and then lost sight of. It appears to affect no 

 particular altitude in its flight any more than it pre- 

 serves a regular or prescribed beat. When the weather 

 is fine, you may see this Bat passing on in a kind of zig- 

 zag manner, apparently uncertain where to go, generally, 

 though not always, at a considerable elevation, and in 

 a few minutes it is gone. Such was for several years 

 the only knowledge we had of this species, but several 

 examples were afterwards seen frequenting small wooded 

 enclosures near the village of Welford, situated on the 

 Avon a few miles west of Stratford. In these latter 

 instances their flight was more circumscribed ; but even 

 then their desultory manners were quite remarkable, and 

 they always appeared shy of approach. In 1853 a pair 

 appeared in an enclosure at the village of Cleeve Prior, 

 near the Avon, between Stratford and Evesham. This 

 was about the middle of May. One of them, a male, 

 was shot, and the other immediately took its departure. 

 Since that time others have been shot near the village of 

 Welford. Of the hiding-place of the Leisler's Bat we 

 know nothing from our own observation, but, from its 

 appearing more frequently near villages than elsewhere, 

 are led to suspect that it is not, like the Noctule, a tree- 

 loving species. Those observed at Cleeve Prior were 

 abroad early in the evening, first appearing scarcely a 

 hundred paces from the church tower, and a shorter 

 distance than that from an ancient stone house and 

 farmstead, built by the monks of Evesham Abbey, 

 and around which other Bats were seen in plenty. 



