1887.] J. Scully— On the Chiroptera of Nepal. 247 



of trees ; somewhere near trees always. It is sometimes found flying on 

 a level with the tops of the trees, but more commonly nearer the 

 ground ; a very characteristic movement it has is a slow but steady 

 sweep round a leafy tree, or clump of trees, in search of insects which 

 frequent the lower branches. While it was intently occupied in this 

 circular flight I have been nearly touched on the face by this bat, as 

 I walked across the grounds attached to my house in Nepal. And in 

 passing so close to one it could be distinctly heard crunching the hard- 

 bodied insects it had caught, between its strong teeth. 



Sometimes these bats seem to come out of their day retreat before 

 the insects they are in search of are to be found in plenty. On the 25th 

 August about 6 p. m., I noticed an example of PhyllorMna armigera 

 flying close to a tree. It circled twice round the tree while I was 

 watching it, keeping about three feet above the ground. Apparently 

 finding that none of the insects it wanted were about, it suspended itself 

 to a small horizontal branch of the tree, just 3^ feet above the ground, 

 and so remained for some time. It was probably waiting for a more 

 propitious hour. Whether this was really the explanation of the pause 

 in its flight or not, it seems certain that this bat does not ordinarily 

 remain very long on the wing. I have often observed that in the early 

 part of the night it alternated its pursuit of insects with short periods 

 of repose in an out-house. On one occasion, I observed a bat of this 

 species return three times during the evening (from about 8 to 10 p. m.) 

 to a room I happened to be occupying ; and curiously enough it always 

 attached itself to precisely the same part of the ceiling. That part of 

 the room, however, was the point furthest away from me, and my pre- 

 sence may have influenced the bat in its selection of the most quiet 

 spot. 



On another occasion, one of these bats had suspended itself to the 

 ceiling of my study late at night, and it first attracted attention by the 

 pattering of its droppings on the floor. On being alarmed at some 

 noise I made in moving books, it quitted its perch and flew lumberingly 

 round the small room. It soon ended by knocking itself violently 

 against a wall and then fell on the floor, apparently exhausted and 

 stunned. When I approached it, however, it flew up and once more 

 hooked on to a beam exactly where it had been before. It does not 

 enter lighted rooms in houses so commonly as so many other species of 

 bats do. Indeed, on the rare occasions when I have found it in this way, 

 its object in coming in was evidently for rest merely, either temporarily 

 or for the night. 



When captared alive (a large butterfly-net answers for this pur- 

 pose), this bat has a fierce and forbidding aspect owing to its depressed 



