312 MR. T. A. COWARD ON THE [Apr. 9, 



2. On the Winter Habits oi' the Greater Horseshoe, BJiino- 

 lophus ferrum-equimim (Schreber), and other Cave- 

 haunting Bats. By T. A. Coward, F.Z.S. 



[Received February 7, 1907.] 



In my paper " On some Habits of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat, 

 Jihuiolojjhus hipposiderus (Bechstein) " (1) I referred to several 

 points of interest in connection with that species cku^ing its 

 winter retreat, and suggasted that its congener, the Greater 

 Horseshoe Bat, Ehinolop/ms ferrum-eqidnum (Schreber), would 

 be found to have similar habits. Since writing that paper I 

 have had the opportunity of observing the Greater Horseshoe in 

 winter in caves in the Mendips, and am fortunate in being able to 

 compare my notes with those made by Mr. Bruce F. Cummings, 

 of Barnstaple, Devon, who at the same time was making- 

 observations on the species in the neighbourhood of that town. 

 The conclusions that I arrived at require some modification, but 

 only one of them was not fully confirmed : I said that the bats 

 " usually " occupy different retreats in summer and winter ; it would 

 be more correct to say that at times and in cei'tain localities different 

 i-etreats are used at different seasons, for in the Cheddar caves the 

 bats occupy apparently similar positions in summer and winter. 

 I have, indeed, little knowledge of the habits of the bats in this 

 locality during the summer months, but I found the remains of 

 insects which must have been captured in summei' lying beneath 

 places which the bats occupy in winter. 



My observations were made at Cheddar, Somerset, and in the 

 neighbourhood, between December 27th, 1906, and January 7th, 

 1907, and, later, on a few examples in captivity. Mr. Cummings 

 paid a number of visits to some disused manganese mines in the 

 Pickwell Down Sandstone near Barnstaple between December 24th, 

 1906, and January 23rd, 1907, and also kept one bat alive for some 

 days. At the end of December and beginning of January I 

 found Greater Horseshoes both in the deepest recesses of the 

 caves — some of which are of great length — and close to the 

 entrances, even within reach of daylight. 



I regret that I have no accurate I'ecord of the temperature in 

 the open at Cheddar during my visit, but on the first few nights 

 there were sharp frosts ; later the weather was mild and at 

 entrances of the caves the tempei-ature varied from 40° to 43° F. 

 Within the caves — at some distance from the entrances — the 

 temperature was fairly constant ; in different spots I found it 

 between 50° and 52° F., and this I understand is also the summer 

 temperature. Mr. Cummings also found that the temperature in 

 the Bai-nstaple mines was 52° F. 



The dimensions of the caves which I visited var-y considerably. 

 The Long Hole, in which I found the Greater Horseshoe 

 abundant, is a long natui-al tunnel in the limestone of perhaps 150 

 or 200 yards in length, and with an average width of seven or 



