216 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Mill on an evening at the end of June that I brought out my little 
‘410 walking-stick gun, and in a few minutes killed several, one 
of which (a male) measured nearly fourteen inches in extent of 
wings. During the fine weather between the 17th and 23rd of 
April, 1885, several were observed in the evening, and on the 21st 
I shot a young male at Aylestone. The Rev. A. Matthews tells 
me (March, 1885) that one broiling-hot day in July, some years 
ago, at mid-day, when the air was perfectly bright and clear, he 
observed swallows circling at an immense altitude, and above 
them, at a much higher elevation, four large bats, which he 
supposed to be of this species.* No doubt this is the species (the 
Noctule) about which Widdowson writes me (12th February, 
1885), under the heading of “‘ Red Horse-shoe Bat.”t He says:— 
“We were cleaning up the church, and at the end of a beam there 
was a hole where it went into the wall. I could smell the bats 
within (very warm and acrid) ; I put my arm in, then called the 
men for a cement tub which stood near, and brought them out by 
handfuls, I should think thirty or more, and not one of them bit 
me. Being very busy, and not being much up in bats, only 
knowing three or four at that time, I let them go; but on 
describing them to a gentleman some time after, he said they 
were rare. They were a ruddy brown colour, nearly as big again 
as a short-tailed grass Mole; he called them the ‘ Red Shoe Bat.’ 
I did not notice the nose.” 
Vespertilio nattereri, Kuhl. Reddish-grey Bat; Natterer’s Bat. 
—Rare. I am enabled to add this species, which is rather rare in 
Britain, on the authority of the Rev. A. Matthews, who showed me 
a specimen caught in his house at Gumley some few years ago— 
he cannot recall the exact date. It will be observed that of the 
fourteen species of Bats which, according to Bell (second edition), 
are found in Britain, but five have as yet been noted in Leicester- 
shire; here then is a field for investigation open to county 
naturalists, and I would therefore ask them to kindly forward all 
unknown bats to me for identification, and the specimens so 
forwarded shall be returned if desired. 
* Our correspondent has overlooked the fact that Gilbert White named 
this bat Vespertilio altivolans, from this very habit of feeding high in the air. 
See Letter 36 to Pennant.—Ep. 
} Rhinolophus ferrwm-equinum has—so far as I am aware—not yet 
occurred in the county. 
