844 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
important a collection, which, when uvpacked and properly arranged and 
catalogued, will prove the most valuable addition which has yet been made 
to the galleries of the Zoological Department. 
MAMMALIA, 
Period of activity of the Noctule and Pipistrelle—Referring to 
the statement in the second edition of Bell's ‘ British Quadrupeds,’ p. 19, 
that “the 18th of September is the latest date we have on record of its 
appearance,” I may meution that I have frequently observed the Great Bat, 
Scotophilus noctula, to continue in activity up to a considerably later date. 
In 1879, particularly, I noticed this species on the wing on many evenings 
in October, and observed two or three examples hawking up and down in 
an exact line over the village street of Bodicote during a cold foggy week 
ending on the 13th of that month, on the evening of which day one of them 
was shot for me by a farmer. On the 16th we had a white frost, and it 
was very cold, nevertheless the Noctules continued on the wing, and a 
second example was shot and sent to me on the 28th October. This species 
becomes very fat previous to retiring for its winter sleep; the specimen shot 
on the 13th had a thick layer of yellow fat under the skin and weighed one 
ounce and a quarter, a great increase of weight as compared with two 
examples shot on the 25th July in the same year, sent to me from Notting- 
hamshire by Mr. C. M, Prior, which each weighed slightly under an ounce. 
It should, however, be stated that the Bodicote example was a male, and 
measured 14°6 inches in extent of wings, while the Nottinghamshire speci- 
mens were both females, measuring only 14°5 and 14:0 inches respectively. 
It is, I think, not very unusual to see the Pipistrelle on the wing in the 
daytime in winter, when the thermometer rises above 50°F. Under such 
conditions I have seen it about mid-day on January 2nd.—O.iver V. APLIN 
(Great Bourton, Oxon). 
BIRDS. 
Discovery of the Eggs of the Knot, Tringa canutus. — Dr. Hart 
Merriam, writing on this subject in the July number of ‘‘The Auk,’ says:— 
“ Lieut. A. W. Greely, U.S.A. Commander of the Late Expedition to Lady 
Franklin Sound, succeeded in obtaining the long sought-for egg of this species, 
and has had the extreme kindness to ask me to publish the first account of 
it. Lieut. Greely writes :—‘ The specimen of bird and egg were obtained 
in the vicinity of Fort Conger, lat. 81° 44’N. The egg was 1:10 in. 
[28 mm.] in the longer axis, and 1 in. [25-40 mm.] in the shorter. Colour 
light pea-green, closely spotted with brown in small specks about the size 
of a pin’s head.’” Dr Hart Merriam is somewhat in error in supposing 
that the egg which he describes is the first which has been obtained; for 
during Parry’s first voyage in 1820, Sabine found the Knot breeding in 
abundance on Melville Island; and during Parry’s second voyage, in 1823, 
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