NOTES ON THE HABITS OF SOME CEYLON BATS. 449 
branches, etc., but does not hang suspended as do the Rhinolophide preferring 
to cling to the sides with feet and wing claws while retaining the head down- 
wards position. 
The sexes live together at any rate for the greater part of the year forming 
colonies of four or five to a dozen or more; the size of the colony, as usual, depend- 
ing on the room available. Females have been found with young in Septem- 
ber. Like others of the same genus it probably breeds more or less all the year 
round. Two, (sometimes only one) young are produced at a birth and are naked 
and blind when born, 
Pipistrellus coromandra.—The Coromandel] Pipistrelle. 
Singhalese—Podi or Kirri Voula. Tamil—Sirra Vava. 
This Pipistrelle seems to take the place of P. mimus mimus on the East side 
of the Island, its range stretching round to the South where it meets P. mimus. 
It is found both in the low country and in the Uva hills to at least 3,500 feet alti- 
tude. It is not found at all on the West coast. Its habits seem to be almost 
identical with those of the next species except that in the hills it probably lives 
more in hollow trees and branches. On the wing it is very easily confused with 
P. mimus. 
Pipistrellus mimus mimus.—The Southern Dwarf Pipistrelle. 
Singhalese—Kirri Voula. Tamil—Sinna Vava. 
This is the smallest bat in the Island. The male, which is smaller and usually 
darker in colour than the female, is really minute for a mammal,though the wings 
give it an appearance of some size in flight. It is very common all over the 
Western and South-western portions of the Island and ascends the hills as far 
as Kandy. But in the East and South-east it gives place to the preceding 
species. It is especially.common in Colombo and Kalutara. 
In the evening it is usually the first bat to make its appearance, coming out as 
it does almost as soon as the sun has set. On first appearing, after circling once 
or twice round the bungalow or other building in which it has spent the day, 
it flies fairly high up into the sky, with quick wing beats and many twists and 
turns. As the evening closes in, however, it generally descends to about the 
level of the tree tops and continues hawking for insects along the edge of the 
jungles or over the paddy fields and clearings. It is rather a familiar little beast 
and the male especially,often comes into bungalows and hawks insects round the 
lamp. By day it hides in small colonies in bungalow roofs, living in the 
small space between the rafters and the tiles and in holes in walls of build- 
ings. Here it may easily be caught by hand, as it is not particularly quick at 
taking flight and escaping. It does not hang head downwards, as the majority 
of bats do, but lies on the rafter, head up, grasping it with all its claws. 
At certain seasons of the year the females and young live together by them- 
selves, but at other times the males are found in the same colony. They (the 
males) are always much less common than the females. When disturbed during 
the day this bat will fly round for sometime and return later if possible to 
the same quarters ; but should this be prevented it will seek others in another 
part of the building or occasionally settle in a tree until all danger is past. When 
settling in a tree it has been observed to pitch on a leaf, head up, and grasp the 
leaf stalk with its wing claws, in which position it remained until captured. It 
seems to breed more or less all the year round. Females with young have been 
found in March, May and December. The mother has either one or two young (at 
a birth) which are born naked, blind, and helpless, but with the instinct to cling 
to the mother’s breast. They accompany her on her flights abroad until they 
become too heavy and are old enough to be left behind. A mother seen by day, 
with two large young attached to her pectoral mammez flew just as agilely as 
usual, though she was rather slow in taking off and a little laboured in gaining 
height. At the time the young are born the males seem to live separate from 
the colony and may then sometimes be found solitary on palm-trees hiding 
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