NOTES AND QUERIES. 261 



a Noctule, although the specimen had lost its colour and was much 

 bleached. This view was apparently shared by Mr. Howse, the Curator of 

 the Museum, and I believe also by Mr. Southwell, who drew ray attention 

 to the existence of the specimen, on hearing that I was about to visit 

 Newcastle. I recorded my observations in ' The Naturalist ' for April, 

 1885 (p. 202). It was taken in 1836 at Mr. Swinburne's house, between 

 Harton and Cleadon, in Durham county, not far from Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

 This occurrence is of interest as being the most northerly record for the 

 Noctule, a species which is generally distributed and not uncommon in 

 Yorkshire." Mr. Koebuck's remarks in ' The Naturalist ' for 1885 (p. 202), 

 to which allusion has been made, are as follow : — " In the Newcastle 

 Museum there is a specimen of a Bat which was taken in the year 1836, 

 at Mr. Swinburne's house, between Harton and Cleadon, in the county of 

 Durham, and not far from Newcastle. It was recorded among the donations 

 to the Museum as the Serotine, 'A species of Bat (Vespertlllo serotinus), 

 taken near Cleadon; Mr. A. Swinburne, 1836' (Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 4to, vol. ii.) It also figures as the Serotine in Messrs. Mennell and 

 Perkins's 'Catalogue of the Mammalia of Northumberland and Durham.' 

 The identification is, however, incorrect. Mr. Thomas Southwell, of 

 Norwich, visited the Museum last year, and, after such inspection as can 

 be given to a specimen in a closed glass case, considered it to be in all 

 probability a Noctule (Vesperugo noctula). He wrote me to this effect in 

 September. When, therefore, I visited Newcastle some weeks after, I was 

 sufficiently interested to make inquiries on the subject, and found that 

 Mr. Kichard Howse, the Curator, had investigated the subject, and shared 

 Mr. Southwell's view. He also showed me the specimen, and, after 

 examination, I fully coincided in their opinion. The specimen is old and 

 much bleached from exposure to light, but it seems to present all the 

 external structural characters of the Noctule. The settlement of the 

 correct name of the specimen is of interest from a geographical point of 

 view from its being a northward extension of the range of the Noctule, 

 which has not before been satisfactorily recorded for any locality north of 

 the River Tees. Why it should not occur — and commonly, too — in the 

 county of Durham is an enigma, for it is not only widely diffused through- 

 out Yorkshire, but is a common species in that county." In a subsequent 

 communication to the same periodical ('Naturalist,' 1886, p. 113), Mr. 

 Roebuck remarked : — " The following item from the ' Durham County 

 Advertiser,' February 26th, 1886, evidently refers to Vesperugo noctula, 

 and is therefore of interest in view of the fact that Durham county forms 

 the northernmost limit of its range. In the Duke of Cleveland's timber- 

 yard in Winston Lane, near Barnard Castle, squeaks were heard while a 

 workman was cross-cutting the trunk of a large oak near the roots. On 

 the crevice being opened twenty-five ' rat bats ' were found in a cluster. 



