THE WHISKERED BAT 169 



on 2nd July, twenty or more examined were all females. 

 Several had young ones clinging to their fur, and others 

 became mothers the next day, the newly born bats being 

 of the usual naked appearance, with dusky heads and wings. 

 An immature male (now preserved in the Dublin Museum) was 

 found clinging to a house by Mr W. Garstin on i8th July, in 

 County Louth, Ireland ; another taken at Kilmanock, County 

 Wexford, on 26th July, although immature, had attained the 

 usual size of an adult : both seem to show that the date of birth 

 may be much earlier in Ireland. Allowing seven weeks for 

 gestation and as many more for growth of the young, it may be 

 safe to calculate that the mothers of these two young bats became 

 alert enough to ovulate in the middle of April, and gave birth 

 to their young at the end of May or in the beginning of June. 



Mr O. V. Aplin^ suggests that the Whiskered Bat feeds 

 largely on moths, but the only definite information available on 

 this subject is the statement of Professor G. H. Carpenter,^ 

 that the fragments of insects in the excreta of an Irish specimen 

 seemed all referable to the two-winged flies.* Mr Oldham found 

 a small staph ylinid beetle in the mouth of one which he captured.* 



In captivity, this species has been the subject of study 

 by Dr Alcock* and Mr Oldham,* the latter of whom has 

 written a detailed account of its habits and demeanour. It 

 appears that, although naturally of fierce temperament when 

 first taken, it may be readily tamed, and when the difficulties 

 at first attending its feeding have been overcome, it displays a 

 marvellous appetite, swallowing with eagerness moths,'^ spiders, 

 and raw rabbit's liver, and lapping up milk or water even more 

 readily. Dr Alcock's specimen also partook of fish, while Mr 

 Oldham's executed an elaborate toilet — a habit common to 

 other species — but, true to the character of its race, it was the 

 host of external parasites, a tick and two fleas having been 

 caught upon its person by its captor. 



"It evinced," writes Mr Oldham, "little disposition for 



' Zoologist, 1901, 315 ; 1904, 311. ^ Irish Naturalist, 1902, 103. 



^ Diptera, and that some pieces of legs and wings clearly belonged to a small 

 Tipulid — very possibly a species of Trichocera. 



' Naturalist, 1897, 242. ^ Irish Naturalist, 1899, 56. 



" Zoologist, 1899, 49-53. ' Scotosia dubitata and Gonoptera libatrix. 



Q 



