OLDHAM : WHISKERED RAT IN DERBYSHIRE. 59 



part of the district, and only in one other locality. Up to last year 

 I have been in the habit of goin^ and taking as many as I wanted 

 just when required. Then the hedge was trimmed, but not 

 excessively, and the bottom does not appear to have been interfered 

 with. But though the species is still to be found in its old quarters, 

 a long and careful search is required to obtain even half-a-dozen 

 examples. Whether the snails will die out or again become plentiful 

 remains to be seen. 



Having been engaged in carefully noting the plants, etc., eaten 

 and rejected by different species of slugs, Helices, etc., I find that 

 these animals are fully on the feed only during the months June, 

 July, and August ; they certainly take food before and after the time 

 specified, but in such a fitful kind of way that I consider all negative 

 results obtained at these times as valueless. 



As since writing the above I have received a letter asking for 

 particulars of my method of keeping slugs and snails for prolonged 

 observation, and it occurs to me that perhaps a few hints as to the 

 plan I have found most convenient might be of use to others 

 desirous of making similar observations. I take a common flower- 

 pot, put in a few pieces of broken pottery for drainage, and half fill 

 with light garden mould; then put in a few dead leaves to cover about 

 a third of the surface, and flat stones — pieces of roofing-slate are the 

 best — to cover another third, leaving the remaining surface bare. 

 For slugs and all except the smaller Helices, the pots should not be 

 less than seven or eight inches across the top. These pots should 

 stand in saucers and be kept well watered. When rearing the young, 

 I sink a small bottle in the earth to contain water for the purpose of 

 keeping the food fresh. When the food is changed frequently, as is 

 the case when experimenting on the diet of the various species, 

 the bottle is unnecessary. Over the pot I place a square of fine 

 perforated zinc, with the corners bent down to keep it in place, and 

 a stone on the top to keep it steady. I have a couple of boxes 

 covered with glazed frames for lids, in which to keep H . pomatia and 

 a few foreign things. 



NOTE— MAMMALIA. 



Whiskered Bat in Derbyshire. — On New Year's Day I took a male 

 Whiskered Bat ( Vespertilio mystacimis) in Lathkill Dale, near Bakewell. It was 

 hanging, asleep, in a damp place, its fur being quite wet, in a tunnel connected 

 with some disused lead-mines. The bats of this species which I have taken in the 

 copper workings at Alderley Edge, Cheshire, have frequently been a hundred 

 yards or more from the mouth of the tunnel, but the Lathkill example was within 

 a few feet of the entrance, sleeping in broad daylight, in fact I found it before I 

 had lighted my candle. — Chas. Oldham, Sale, Jan. 3rd, 1889. 



Feb. 1889. 



