64 VESPERTILIONID^— NYCTALUS 



grammes (Gilbert White, letter xxxvi., to Pennant); 15-95 grammes 

 (Fleming); a captive female, June, 1772 grammes (Daniell) ; one, 28th 

 April, 24-80 grammes (C. H. B. Grant); a female, 27th March, 38-88 

 grammes (Charbonnier). 



Distinguishing characters : — The Noctule is an easy bat to identify. 

 On the wing its dashing, lofty, swift-like flight is very distinctive, 

 and is only approached by N. leisleri, which is, however, too small 

 to be confounded with a mature Noctule. In the hand no species 

 approaches its size, with the exception of the Greater Horseshoe, 

 to be at once recognised by its nose-leaf and the absence of a tragus ; 

 and the Serotine, also a very different animal. 



We are indebted to Daubenton for the first discrimination 

 of this fine bat. He described it and figured the head so 

 long ago as 1759, and Buffon subsequently gave it a place 

 in his great work. The first notice of its occurrence 

 as a British species is in Gilbert White's Natural History of 

 Selborne^ in which it is mentioned three times, and its general 

 appearance, early autumnal retirement, "very rancid and 

 offensive smell," and lofty flight are subjected to criticism. It 

 was the latter peculiarity which suggested to White the 

 appropriate name of Vespertilio altivolans. 



Other British writers were not slow to follow White, and 

 we find the Great Bat or Noctule and its habits described 

 with more or less precision in the works of Pennant, Bingley, 

 Donovan, Fleming, and Jenyns. It appeared in both editions 

 of Bell, who, himself a resident of Selborne, observed it 

 for several successive seasons, probably on the very ground 

 where it first attracted the attention of its venerable dis- 

 coverer. Its habits are now fairly well known, thanks to the 

 labours of a number of naturalists, amongst whom the names 

 of George Daniell, George Dowker, John Wolley, and Messrs 

 T. A. Coward, Charles Oldham, and Arthur Whitaker stand 

 out most prominently. 



The Noctule is a tree-loving species, existing in some 

 abundance in the southern and midland counties of Great 

 Britain, especially where there are old trees in sufficient numbers 

 to provide it with secure retreats. It dwells gregariously in 

 large companies in holes of trees or of buildings, and its 



■ Letters xxii., xxvi., and xxxvi., to Thomas Pennant, dated 2nd January 1769, 

 8th December 1769, and September 1771 : original edition, 63, 75, 93-94, 1793- 



