MAMMALS. 63 



subject requires further investigation, and such I intended 

 to have given it during a second visit this summer, by ascer- 

 taining positively whether any bats are constant inhabitants of 

 the Orkneys, and, if so, of what species; but I was unfor- 

 tunately only there a few days, and in such weather as no bats 

 could be expected to withstand. If I did not attempt to account 

 for the presence of this bat, I certainly hinted at my views on 

 the matter by saying that a bat is a very likely animal to be 

 brought in a ship, and by observing that this specimen was 

 looked upon as a very great curiosity, as any bat would have 

 been. Of the circumstances of its discovery I had undoubted 

 evidence. The people who found it were as much astonished and 

 frightened at it as Mr. Gerard was surprised to see it ; and 

 this gentleman preserved it with great care, as a thing of most 

 unusual occurrence, though he did not know that it was otherwise 

 than a common bat. I may say that he is now some years past 

 eighty, and has all his life been an observer of nature as exhibited 

 in the Orkney Islands, and especially in South Eonaldsay. 

 This country, entirely destitute of trees, and so exposed to every 

 wind, seems very ill adapted for the constant residence of any 

 species of bat ; and therefore these considerations, with the 

 evidence of the people, at once inclined me to believe it was an 

 accidental visitant. I was told at the British Museum that the 

 characters I had observed the hairiness of the upper side of 

 the interfemoral membrane, and the yellowish band of hair on 

 the wing underneath the principal bones were peculiar to a 

 family of American bats, called, from the first circumstance, 

 Lasinores, and on my bat (for it has since been very kindly 

 presented to me by Mr. Gerard) being compared with those in 

 the Museum, it was attributed to the species called pruinosus, 

 although considerably larger than the specimens in the collection, 

 and it may perhaps be a nearly allied species. Had any species 

 of the group been known to inhabit Europe I should have had 

 better hopes of finding that this bat was really indigenous to the 

 north of Britain. All things considered, I have little doubt 

 it was brought by one of the very numerous vessels which pass 

 between South Eonaldsay and John o' Groat's from various 

 parts of the world, or which lie up in the far-famed roadstead, 



