Quadrupeds . 28 1 3 



Description of the Individual of a Species of Bat (? Vespertilio pruinosus),/ow»M/ in 

 the Island of South Ronaldshay, in the Orkneys, in the year 1847 (See Zool. 2695, &c). 

 — I have much pleasure in sending a description of this bat, according to the requests 

 of Mr. Tomes and Mr. Newman. I am sorry that I am not enough of an artist to 

 be able to make a drawing of the more characteristic parts. The teeth appear to be 

 of the insectivorous form : the formula of dentition is, I. §, C. §, P. M. |, M. §. The 

 upper incisor is close to the canine, there being apparently no teeth in front in the 

 upper jaw. The divisions between the teeth of the lower jaw are not very easily made 

 out in this dried specimen, and it is therefore possible that the formula I have given 

 may be incorrect. The ear is somewhat like that of the Noctule : the upper angle is 

 rather more depressed, and the lobe does not appear to descend below the level of the 

 opening of the ear ; but as it is somewhat crashed, this is not very certain : also, the 

 tragus is longer than in the Noctule. The ear is nearly covered with hair, inside and 

 out, except at the margin, where the black skin — supported on cartilage curled back 

 from the concave side of the ear — is quite exposed. The orifice of the nostrils is 

 comma-shaped, and the muzzle is of similar proportions to that of the Noctule. The 

 face, head, and the whole of the body, are covered with long hair ; each hair divided 

 into four belts of colour, dark brown at the roots, then light tawny, again dark brown, 

 and white at the tips : each of these belts, in those parts of the body where the hair 

 is longest, is an eighth of an inch in breadth, except the white belt, which is less. The 

 hair of the upper surface extends over the whole of the interfemoral membrane and 

 the backs of the toes of the feet : in these situations the colours of the hairs have 

 blended into two only, brown tipped with white. It passes, without decrease in 

 thickness, from the sides of the body upon the flying membrane, and ends abruptly 

 in an imaginary line drawn from the foot across the middle of the humerus to the an- 

 terior margin of the membrane : that is, it extends for an inch, more or less, beyond 

 the body on each side, and over the whole of the membrane of the tail. On the up- 

 per surface of the wing there is also a very small tuft in the hollow of the bend of the 

 elbow, another between the root of the thumb and fore-finger, and a few short scat- 

 tered hairs on other parts near the principal bones of the wing. Underneath, the 

 colours are less bright than on the back. As the hairs leave the body they gradually 

 change to tawny, and they extend in the form of a close pubescence along the ante- 

 rior part of the flying membrane as far as to a little beyond the wrist ; indeed nearly 

 the whole of the third metacarpal is accompanied by a narrow strip of hair : opposite 

 the elbow and the wrist it forms a band of an inch in breadth ; between these points 

 it is rather less : that part of the membrane where these hairs are implanted on the 

 under surface is tawny, both above and below ; the rest of the membrane of the wing 

 and the interfemoral membrane are black. The margin of the hair just described on 

 the under surface of the wing gradually turns, opposite the elbow, towards the knee, 

 and the boundary line is continued through the knee to the middle of the bones of 

 the tail, so that the proximal half of the interfemoral membrane is covered with hair ; 

 but all the hair on the under side of the membranes, as it has gradually changed in 

 colour from that of the body, so it differs from it in being finer and less closely set ; 

 whilst the hair on the upper surface of the membranes, at least the greater part of it, 

 all that is continuous with that of the body, differs little from this last in character. 

 The membrane is in width before the bend of the elbow fths of an inch; behind it 

 nearly If inch : it extends to the tips of all the digits of the anterior extremity, except 

 the first, where all beyond the metacarpal bone is exserted, and this digit alone is 

 VIII 2 A 



