GREATER HORSE-SHOE BAT. 93 



room wlien I went to bed ; the window liad been left 

 open. It measured the very large size of 14^ inches in 

 expanse of wing. On the next three nights, which were 

 still and calm, I saw numbers of (apparently) the same 

 Bats flying around the house among a grove of syca- 

 mores. The flight was low, short, and sluggish, both in 

 the room and out of doors. I had no oj)portunity of 

 securing a specimen from those outside the house, but I 

 am quite satisfied they were the same. Vespertilio Noc- 

 tula is the only other large Bat I have seen on Tomson 

 Manor. I have often shot this species there in August, 

 when they fly high with a bold extended range, quite 

 diff'erent from the R. Fr." 



It is said to feed much upon chafers, of which it eats 

 only the body. 



It is probable that this species has a very considerable 

 geographical range. In Europe it v.'ould appear to be 

 pretty generally distributed, though we find that it is not 

 included by M. Nilsson in his Scandinavian Fauna; by 

 Prof. Brandt, however, it is mentioned as a Russian 

 species. From Algeria we have seen a few specimens, 

 which were received with numerous examples of R. 

 Euryale, to which species the one under notice has 

 probably, in respect of numbers, to give way. But it 

 is more than probable that the Great Horse-shoe Bat 

 occurs in many other localities in Africa, since we have 

 examined and identified specimens from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, which had been collected and transmitted 

 to the Zoological Society by Sir Andrew Smith, and 

 were included by INTr. Waterhouse in his Catalogue of 

 the mammalia contained in the Museum under the name 

 of Rh. Capensis. 



Tiie distinctions between this species and the follow- 

 ing will be detailed in tiie account of the latter. They 



