W hi /a key : Noles on Bats. 421. 



partly decayed l)ranch. and at an altitude of about twenty- 

 five feet from the ground, we found it differed from any we 

 have previously examined. The entrance was in the form of 

 a longish slit, and the hole ran downwards from it at an angle 

 of about forty-five degrees. The bats were huddled together 

 on the top of a disused Starling's nest, at the bottom of the 

 hole. In all holes we have formerly found tenanted by bats, 

 the entrance has been at the bottom and the bats had crawled 

 Hpii'ards for hiding and shelter. 



We had expected to find a colony of Xoctule bats in the 

 hole, but on getting to it, and finding it lacked the strong, 

 disagreeable smell, so characteristic of the \octule bat, and its 

 den, Ave were at once led to suspect that the occupants were 

 Hairy-armed Bats, and this proved to be the case. 



The bats were all wide awake by the time we reached the 

 hole, and before we could get my net over it, they began to 

 crawl out and fly away. Even when we held the net in front 

 of the entrance it was not large enough to cover the entire 

 length of the slit, so that about a dozen bats escaped. Some 

 of these flew about in the vicinity for five or six minutes 

 before we finally lost sight of them. When flying they looked 

 noticeably smaller than Noctule bats, and the wings appeared 

 much narrower. 



We actually secured nineteen bats, all proving to be 

 V. leisleri, and found that seventeen were females and two 

 males, and that fourteen of the former appeared to be adult 

 bats which had suckled young during the year. 



The remaining five, although about equal in size to the 

 others, appeared to be young bats of the season, judging b}- 

 the undeveloped condition of the mamm?e (in the three which 

 were females) ; the smoother and softer texture of the wing 

 membranes, etc., and the softer and less brittle condition of the 

 bones in several which were skinned and mounted for cabinet 

 specimens. These five young bats were also noticeably greyer 

 in colour than the adults. 



I have an increasing conviction that the Hairy-armed bat is 

 by no means uncommon in this district, and I feel quite con- 

 fident in sa5nng that I often see it upon the wing. Two bats 

 shot in my own garden at Worsbrough Dale on July 21st, 

 1910, as they were flying at an altitude of about thirty feet, 

 proved to be of this species, one being a male, and the other 

 a female. 



igio Dec. i. 



