428 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Serotine Bat in Essex. — A short time ago I received from my 

 friend Mr. E. M. Presland, of Manor House, Oak Hill, Woodford 

 Green, Essex, three Bats for identification : one proved to be a 

 Noctule [Nyctalus noctula), one a Pipistrelle {Pipistrellus inpi- 

 strellus), and the third a Serotine {Vespertilio serotinus). On looking 

 up serotinus in ' A History of British Mammals' (Barrett-Hamilton), 

 pp. 130-139, I find that this Bat has only been previously recorded 

 three times from Essex, and that the example under notice (a male), 

 obtained at the Manor House, Woodford Green, on July 14th, 1911, 

 forms the fourth record for the county, and probably the nearest 

 record to the Metropolis. The other three Essex examples recorded 

 are — one killed before 1863 at Coggeshall, and detected by Miller 

 Christy in 1883 ; a second taken by Miller Christy at Broomfield in 

 1891 ; and a third taken at Pitsea, near Tilbury, in August, 1906 

 (Barrett-Hamilton, ' A History of British Mammals,' p. 132). I am 

 indebted to my friend Mr. J. L. Bonhote for the identification of the 

 above Bat. — F. W. Sbialley (Challan Hall, Silverdale, Lancashire). 



Lesser Rorqual Whale at Lowestoft. — Observing a note in a local 

 paper that a Whale had been v^ashed ashore at Lowestoft on October 

 14th last, I journeyed over on the 16th, and found the rather dilapi- 

 dated strong-smelling carcase rolling about in the wash of a heavy 

 sea, within a few yards of the sea-wall, abreast of the herring-basin. 

 Most of the skin had been abraded when I saw it, and the head with 

 the jaw-bones had been removed and carted away by a local knacker, 

 who presumably had an idea of extracting oil from the beast, two 

 heaps of pieces of flesh of the size of a pumpkin then being piled 

 under the sea-wall ready for removal. The pectoral fins were also 

 gone. I was fortunate in discovering one large slice of flesh (looking 

 very like the pickled beef in the days of our ancient mariners) from the 

 throat of the animal, still showing the characteristic wrinkles of the 

 Eorquals, and I hunted up a photographer who had snapped the 

 carcase before the ghouls had been at work upon it. The photograph 

 plainly showed the elongated jaw-bones (bare of flesh), the white 



