THE WHISKERED BAT 165 



Pipistrelle, the popular " Common Bat " of this country gener- 

 ally. It is hardly known in Scotland. 



But although not rare in England, the Whiskered Bat is 

 little known and seldom seen, a fact which has given it a repu- 

 tation for scarcity, or, at least, for solitary habits. It might, 

 indeed, be inferred from the published accounts that it is quite 

 unusual to find it in company, an inference strengthened by 

 the fact that, in its winter retreats, each individual hangs, as a 

 rule, in its own corner or crevice, in marked contrast to the 

 strongly gregarious character of the Noctule and other species, 

 which crowd closely together. On the other hand, assemblages 

 have been described, as by R. F. Tomes,^ who knew of a 

 colony consisting of more than a hundred, inhabiting the roof 

 of his house at Littleton, Worcestershire, and by Mr Oxley 

 Grabham,^ who took five from behind a shutter in Yorkshire ; 

 and it may be that further examination will prove it to be 

 more sociable than is commonly supposed. 



The flight of this bat so closely resembles that of the 

 Pipistrelle that the most acute observers often fail to distinguish 

 the two when on the wing, a fact due rather to their small size, 

 which prevents accurate observation and comparison, rather 

 than to any real resemblance. In the confined space of a room 

 the two are very different, and, apart from the Whiskered Bat 

 being larger, the slow and steady rhythm of its flight, always 

 prone to "skim" floor or ceiling, the interfemoral membrane 

 with a downward curve, is, as in Daubenton's Bat, very 

 characteristic' If there be other distinctions, they lie, perhaps, 

 in the general silence of the present species, the Pipistrelle 

 being very noisy, and its supposed preference for the branches 

 of trees, from the leaves of which it picks off its prey ; in fact 

 Tomes thought it the most arboreal of all English bats. 

 According to Mr G. H. Caton Haigh, the Whiskered Bat 

 comes abroad earlier in the evening than the Pipistrelle, "and 

 usually selects for its hunting-ground the sheltered ends of a 

 high hedge or plantation, or even a cliff, along which it 

 flies to and fro, seldom rising as high as the tops of the 

 trees or rocks nearest to it. When crossing an open space it 



' Worcestershire, i., 174. 2 j^aturalist, 1899, 74. 



' As remarked also by Caton Haigh, Zoologist, 1887, 294. 



