Whitaker: Notes on the Habits of Bats. II 
perhaps of several minutes’ duration, and then several more. 
We estimated that we saw well over sixty bats, all Pipistrelles, 
leave the den, and thirty-one of these we secured for examination. 
Probably this does not nearly represent the strength of the 
colony, for judging by their squeakings, many were stil! in 
the hole and others were yet emerging when we left. I was 
surprised to find that without a single exception the thirty-one 
specimens procured were females. All seemed in poor, rather 
emaciated condition, and some of them were quite mangy. 
A-number were destitute of fur on the breasts, which led me 
to think they had been suckling young, but it was curious that 
we found no juveniles. I had expected to find some quite tiny 
young ones at the time. Possibly the exceptionally fine dry 
season had made them rather earlier than usual. 
Some colonies of bats occupy the same dens for a very long 
time. For instance, on the 17th of September, rg11, I was 
at Gringley-on-the-Hill, near Doncaster, and had _ pointed 
out to’me a small hole in the side of an old farm building 
from which 103 bats had been counted to emerge at dusk the 
previous day. My informant, a man of over forty-five, told 
me they had occupied the same hole ever since he could remem- 
ber, and that his father had told him they were there even 
when he was a boy. It was too cold on the evening I was there 
for many bats to be stirring, and I only secured one specimen, 
a male Pipistrelle. Two other bats netted as they flew in a 
stack-yard near by, were also of the same species. In all 
probability the colony was composed of bats of this kind. 
On September 28th, 1912, I went to hunt for bats in the 
roof of a small church standing in a well wooded private 
park, near Barnsley. We ascended first up dusty ladders 
and through a trap door into the darkness of the belfry, 
where the sexton informed us he had often seen them ‘ hang- 
ing like bunches of grapes.’ Here however, we were not 
successful in discovering any. Passing from the belfry down 
three or four steps we got into the main roof, a long, dark, 
warm place, divided by six or seven large timber roof 
trusses. For some time our search only resulted in the dis- 
covery of three or four dead and mummified specimens of 
the Long-eared Bat (P. auritis) which were lying on the floor. 
Then I succeeded in discovering two living bats of the same 
species hanging separately from the roof timbers. While 
trying to photograph these by the light of some magnesium 
wire we became aware of one or two bats which were flitting 
silently round us in the gloom. This convinced us that there 
must be more of them somewhere, so we renewed our search. 
After a little time one of the party suddenly called out ‘ Here 
they are.’ We hurried to the place and saw a cluster of thirty 
or forty Long-eared Bats clinging all in close proximity at the 
1913 Jan. 1. 
