306 Wild Life in Wales 



hung the Bat, now contracted into a small round ball, and 

 to all appearances asleep. Whether it would have passed 

 the day there could only be guessed ; but wishing to make 

 sure of the species, I rudely disturbed it, when, as I had 

 expected, it proved to be V. daubentoni. On being released, 

 it flew of? at once. That Bats drink water in captivity is, 

 of course, well known ; but I am not aware whether they 

 have been observed to do so at large, nor, if so, how the 

 liquid was obtained. They frequently pick an insect off 

 the surface of a quiet pool, but could hardly, in that way, 

 take much of a drink. 



Bats, called Ystlum here, are not very plentiful at 

 Llanuwchllyn, the Pipistrelle being the most common. In 

 September I found one of these that had met with its 

 death in a very curious way. It was hung up to a trailer 

 of bramble, on the railway bank, and had evidently, in 

 passing, had the misfortune to catch the tip of a wing on 

 one of the strongly hooked spines. The membrane had 

 been pierced only half through ; but, in its struggles, the 

 Bat had taken a turn over the branch, and was thus 

 securely held by the folded skin. It had been dead some 

 time before I released it, and had probably died a lingering 

 death from starvation. 



The Long-eared Bat is also fairly numerous, and, with 

 the last, was sometimes seen late on an afternoon, flying 

 in the sunlight about the trees near the village. One of 

 these day-flying Long-eared Bats was noticed constantly 

 alighting, for short intervals, in a field, and I could only 

 suppose that it was gathering food of some kind from the 

 grass. In the twilight, this bat sometimes flies high above 

 the trees, so high as to appear a mere speck against the 

 sky, and to be only recognisable by the curious star-shaped 

 figure which the large ears impart to it. At other times 

 it has swept boldly past me, and seized moths from a 

 sugared flower-head, undeterred by the light from my 

 lantern. In this way, it is quite the most fearless of all 

 our Bats, and owing to its ears, looms up very large as 

 it crosses the ray of light. I have never seen it hawking 

 low over water, as the last species, and Daubenton's Bat, 



