YORKSHIRE BATS. 
OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., M.B.O.U., 
Chestnut House, Heworth, York. 
Ir often appears curious to me how few, how very few, people 
ever 
seem to take the trouble to investigate the habits and 
econony of these little creatures, or even care to know how 
many species we have in our islands. My enquiries on the 
subject are generally met with the reply, ‘Oh, we have the 
Long-eared Bat, the Short-eared, and the Common Large Bat,’ 
and I am often asked most wonderful questions concerning 
them, as to whether they are not really birds? If they lay eggs? & as 
Where they make their nests? etc., etc., and by the great 
majority of people they are looked upon as beasts of evil omen, 
blood-suckers, frequenters of church-yards and other unclean 
places. Yet they are by no means without interest, and I need 
scarcely say bring forth their young in the same way as other 
mammals do. I have at various times kept nearly all our 
British species in confinement, and though they can scarcely be 
called amusing ome still they exhibit a certain amount of 
intelligence, and s 
@ 
o 
ct 
yy 
8 
—_ 
® 
o 
5 
° 
co 
if je} 
= 
o> 
1) 
je 
3 
a 
o 
~p 
3 
io} 
e- 
Ce 
beetle, fly, or piece a raw meat from their master’s hand. 
1 have heard the term ‘flittermouse’ applied to them, but in the | 
Holderness district they are always known as ‘blackbeeraways’— 
mothers frightening their unruly children by calling on the black 
object to bear them away. Varieties are very rare, and out of 
the scores of Bats that I have at antec times examined I have 
only seen one such specimen. This was taken i 8098 by 
the Hon. A. H. Baring, of the baa: Alre sSoitt ipases: being 2 
found by him, as recorded in the ‘Zoologist’ for June, nailed to 
a barn door, and in an advanced state of de sai deerme 
It w 
by 
Lal 
Mr. Baring very kindly sent me this Bat to examine. 
a Long-eared one, and a pure albino, fur very long and silky, 
Austen, of the British Museum, as Wycleribia hermanni Leach, 
Anderson, of York, tells me the station-master’s house at North 
eamstons on the N.E.R., was found to be swarming with a 
1899. 
- March 
the month of January 1893 my friend Dr. Tempest 
ne 
