COMMON BAT, PIPISTRELLE OR FLITTER-MOUSE 115 



on windy winter evenings the Pipistrelle may be found hunting 

 within the shelter provided by a large partially open cattle-shed. 

 Bats have, however, been on occasions observed to fly at 

 temperatures below 38° Fahrenheit, as when Captain L. H. 

 Irby,^ on 2nd January 1887, observed one on the wing in 

 Surrey in bright sunshine at noon, the ground being covered 

 with snow and the temperature below the freezing-point — 

 an observation repeated by Mr G. H. Caton Haigh ^ at 

 Grainsby, Lincolnshire, on the loth of the same month, 

 in similar conditions as regards weather, but in bright moon- 

 light. 



The partiality of small bats of some species for mid-day 

 flights is well known, and their frequent appearances 

 seem to show that they can have no inherently strong 

 objection to daylight. But the identification of such flights 

 with the Pipistrelle can only rest on conjecture, and at the 

 present stage of our knowledge it is quite beyond possibility 

 to say which species makes the most frequent appearances 

 by daylight. The evidence brought forward by good 

 observers is, however, on the whole, inclined to connect 

 them chiefly with the Whiskered Bat. Whatever be the 

 truth, bats which venture out at such unorthodox hours 

 must fain submit to the persecutions to which the original 

 in general are subjected, and have sometimes, as Couch* 

 has observed, been driven back to their dens by the angry 

 attacks of scandalised birds. 



The fondness of this animal for different species of gnats 

 has been observed from the time when Pliny * wrote (although 

 probably of a different species), "Et in cibatu culices gratissimi" 

 and it is probable that these little flies constitute no small part 

 of its usual food. But, judging from its habits in captivity, 

 it doubtless consumes a variety of insects. According to 

 Mr Caton Haigh,^ it frequently captures comparatively large 

 insects, the well-known "daddy-long-legs" or crane-fly being 

 one of its favourites, while Mr Millais states that it devours 



' Zoologist, 1887, 69. 2 Ibid., 1887, 143. ^ Op. cit., 1853, 3942. 



* C. Plinii secundi Naturalis Historiae, ed. of Joannes Harduinus, lib. x., cap. Ixi. 

 (Ixxxi.), 454 (Paris), 1685 ("and for food gnats [are] very pleasant [to it]"). 

 ' Zoologist, 1887, 293. 



