Quadrupeds. 6953 



Occurrence of a Rare Bat, the Barbastelle (Barbastellus Daubentonii) in the Neigh- 

 bourhood of London. — On the 3rd instant, when taking my first entomological walk 

 this season in Richmond Park, I fonnd clinging to the trunk of a large oak a bat of 

 this rare species : it was in a state of semi-torpidity, basking in the warm sun. I think 

 the cause of its leaving its winter quarters thus early, after so cold a season, 

 was attributable rather to the extreme discomfort it must have suffered from the mul- 

 titude of vermin with which it was infested, rather than from a very slight rise of 

 temperature. — Robert Mitford ; Hampstead, March 21, 1860. 



Account of a Species of Phalangista, recenth/ killed in the County of 

 Durham. By John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.* 



On the 22nd of August ]ast, a son of the rector of Redmarshall, a 

 small village in the county of Durham, brought to me at Norton, dis- 

 tant four miles to the east of that place, a recently killed and singular 

 looking animal. At first sight, the only British quadruped which it 

 at all resembled, and that chiefly from its dark-coloured tail and yel- 

 low breast and belly, is the yellow-breasted pine martin. Of this 

 animal I have never seen a fresh specimen — only one, a good while 

 ago, preserved in a museum. On a very slight examination, I however 

 found, from the two large front teeth in the lower jaw, that it could 

 not be a species of the Mustelidae ; but it seemed (if such an animal 

 were possible) a mule between a yellow-breasted martin and a squirrel 

 or a rabbit ; the teeth and the general aspect affording characters of 

 some such anomalous creature. Yet, on a closer examination of its 

 feet, and especially of its hind ones, and of its long black tail, which 

 was evidently prehensile at its extremity, I found that it could not be 

 any British quadruped, but some New South Wales, opossum-like, or 

 marsupial species. Had it been a female, I should at once have 

 detected the pouch, or marsupium, or some distinct marks of one. I 

 need hardly add, that if I ever before had had an opportunity of ex- 

 amining with the least attention any species of the opossum tribe, I 

 could not for a moment have entertained the remotest idea that 

 it could be referred to any indigenous quadruped in Great Britain. 

 This marsupial animal consequently could only have escaped from 

 confinement. 



The gentleman who brought it to me said it had been killed the 



* This paper (without the postscript) was read, on September 19th, to the Natural 

 History Section, at the Meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen. Communi- 

 cated by the Author. 



XVIII. Y 



