98 DUBLIN NATTJBAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



The last opportunity I had of exploring a bat cave was on Easter 



■;3<^ -^''^^Monday, April 1st, when, being again in the neighbourhood of Vigo, we 



^ /<-^/fe paid that cave a flying visit. We found only two bats; the weather 



^-.^^^ ' ^^^ ^®^^ mA^ and open for some days previously, as was shown by 



the numerous wheat-ears (seen for the first time in the Burren on the 



27th March) flitting about, and by the chaffinches, which for the first 



time I heard this day in every grove and plantation passed through. 



Singularly enough, both bats were females, though on our previous visit, 



more than three weeks before, all the four specimens met were males. 



We did not revisit the other caves in this neighbourhood. 



From these observations one or two general deductions may be drawn. 

 In the first place, the number of specimens met with, fifty-four, being 

 all of the one species, justifies us in considering this the; characteristic bat 

 of Clare, coupled with the fact that they occurred at places so far apart 

 as Inchiquin, Ennis, and Quin, according to Mr. Foot ; to which must 

 also be added the neighbourhood of the town of Galway, as shown by a 

 specimen captured by Professor William King, in 1858, — giving a very 

 extensive range of distribution for this species ; next the fact, that out 

 of eight caves examined (for we may exclude the chink at Kilcorney as 

 too lightsome), the bats occurred in six, all of which were either in plan- 

 tations, or else close to them, and most of the caves having their en- 

 trances hung with plants. This shows, in addition to the first deduc- 

 tion, that to the proximity of woods, to which the animals can resort in 

 summer, is probably due their selection of these caves. Of the two 

 caves from which the bats were absent, in the great cave at Kilcorney, 

 no terrestrial animal could exist through the winter, owing to the floods. 

 The second cave, at Inchiquin, is very small. Another point put forward 

 by Mr. Foot may be looked on as proven, — the fact that the sexes hi- 

 bernate apart. I took great pains to be accurate as regards this point, 

 and examined every specimen individually myself; yet out of the fifty- 

 four, I only found one female to nineteen bats at Ballyallia, and one 

 female to twenty-seven at Edenvale, which occurred in the third cave, 

 and in a separate passage from those in which its four fellow-tenants 

 were hung; and two females the sole denizens of Vigo cave, on our second 

 visit there ; four out of fifty-four, — a very great disparity. It may 

 be recollected that, though Mr, Foot records having examined twenty 

 specimens in 1859, he only met one female. 



I am sure that we left no part of the caves visited unexamined, ex- 

 cept the roof of the last chamber in Vigo cave ; and think it likely the 

 two females which we met there had wakened from their hybernation 

 under the influence of the mild weather in some other part of the cave, 

 possibly the high chamber, and then gone to sleep again. 



With regard to the kind of place the bats select, although some of 

 those in Balliallia were dripping with wet, they as a rule certainly pre- 

 ferred the dry places, and also, I think, the darkest places, as they are 

 much more numerous, and in a deeper sleep, in such parts of the cave 

 as are most deeply sunk in the gloom. On the other hand, it must be 

 recollected, that in nearly every cave we found specimens in the daylight. 



