Wlii/akcr : Noies on Bals. 423 



and secure moths, insects, and even meal-worms, if they are 

 thrown into its cage, without the least trouble being spent in 

 training it to do so. In the case of other kinds of bats it is 

 almost invariably a long and tedious business to train them 

 to pick up their own food from a cage floor, and this is especially 

 the case when it comes to meal-worms, which are, of course, a 

 somewhat unnatural food for them. 



A delightfully tame little Long-eared bat, kept by my 

 friend Mr. Armitage during the autumn of 1908, by its habits 

 in captivity threw interesting light upon the difficult question 

 of the extent to which these little creatures hunt by sight. 

 This bat was so tame that when allowed the run (or ' fly ') 

 of the room it would readily respond to a chirruping call, and 

 come and take a meal-worm from one's lingers, flying away 

 with it and settling, usually somewhere on the floor, to eat it. 

 We were interested to find, however, that if the gas were fully 

 on and the room consequently brightly illuminated, the bat 

 would fly up in a hesitating, fluttering manner when called, 

 and settle somewhere on my friend's coat or sleeve, and crawl 

 or flutter about some little time before it succeeded in finding 

 the meal-worm. Similarly, if all lights were turned out and 

 the room in perfect darkness, it would behave in just the same 

 wav, but if, on the other hand, a faint illumination were given 

 by a very tiny gas flame, it would usually dart straight up 

 when called, and even take the worm directly from one's 

 fingers without settling at all. It was quite evident that it 

 was much more at home in a ver}' subdued light than in either 

 bright light or total darkness. 



During the autumn if igog I had the pleasure of keeping 

 several Daubenton's bats {M. daiihentoni) for some three or 

 four months. It is a species of which I had previously 

 had little experience in captivity. I found them inclined to 

 be quarrelsome, and when this was the case they were sometimes 

 quite noisy, and made a sound which might easily be mistaken 

 for that made by sparrows when fighting. One of these Dauben- 

 ton's bats became well accustomed to the artificial conditions 

 of captivity, and after some time displayed considerable 

 ability in securing meal-worms and other insects thrown into 

 its cage. These bats would consume on an average about 

 twenty meal-worms each per day. 



Mr. J. Fincham Turner, of Doncaster, recently submitted 

 to me two bats' skins for identification. These proved to be 



1910 Dec. I. 



