294 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



insects and ants'-eggs. On reaching home an hour afterwards I found that 

 one shrew had torn out and devoured the intestines of the other. Ou 

 placing the survivor in a case with vipers and snakes, he at once attacked 

 them, biting furiously at anyone in his way. The vipers hissed, but did 

 not strike him ; and the snakes tried to avoid him. I was at length com- 

 pelled to remove the shrew for the safety of the reptiles. Is it not probable 

 that snakes and vipers have a destructive enemy in the mole, for when in 

 their winter sleep they are completely at his mercy. In winter he seeks 

 large heaps of stones, and such places as those in which reptiles hybernate, 

 and he will attack auy small animal. — C. Witchell (Stroud). 



Natterer's Bat in Co. Cork. — On the 7th of April last, while walking 

 through the woods of Castlefrcke, Co. Cork, the seat of Lord Carberry, my 

 attention was attracted by seeing a bat flying about in the sunshine at 

 2 o'clock in the afternoon. At first I thought it had probably been 

 disturbed accidentally from its resting-place, and was straying about lost 

 in the sunlight ; but presently I saw that it was catching insects ; and 

 after a little it alighted on the trunk of a tree, and I was enabled to watch 

 its proceedings. It was munching a large moth, and pushed the insect 

 into its mouth with its thumbs, and 1 could hear the crackling of the 

 moth's armour as it disappeared. I saw that it was a Long-eared Bat 

 (P. auritus). I put my hat over it, but it managed to creep out under- 

 neath and escape. About an hour later I observed another bat in a 

 different part of the wood, which, like the former, stayed in the open sun- 

 shine, and seemed to prefer it to the shade of the trees. I noticed that this 

 bat was more lively in his movements than the one previously observed. I 

 followed it for a long time before it pitched, and then it was too high 

 in a tree, hanging by one foot. However I soon dislodged it by throwing 

 at it, and it again alighted, this time low down on the trunk of a tree. 

 After one attempt aud failure, I eventually secured it. On referring to 

 ' Bell's Quadrupeds ' I had no doubt of the species being V. nattereri, the 

 tragus being three-fourths the length of the ear and sharp at the tip, and 

 the absence of any notch on the outer margin of the ear ; the cilia on the 

 inter-femoral membrane were well marked ; the colour was brownish grey 

 above and light coloured beneath. Mr. A. G. More has since confirmed 

 this identification, and the specimen is at present in the Royal Dublin 

 Society's museum.— J. Ffolliott Darling (Clonakiltvi. 



[Bell calls this the " Reddish Grey Bat," a name which does not 

 sufficiently distinguish it from other species. " Natterer's Bat " is a better 

 English name for it. We have notes of its occurrence in Dublin, Kildare, 

 and Wicklow, and in very many counties of England, chiefly midland and 

 southern ; and on turning over our journals we find the following entry 

 relating to it :— " August "24th, 3 p.m., at Mid hurst, Sussex, saw Natterer's 



