200 VESPERTILIONID^— PLECOTUS 



R. F. Tomes supposed, an inhabitant of the open country. 

 It frequently seeks its prey, somewhat after the fashion of the 

 Whiskered Bat, amidst the intricacies of the branches, where 

 it plucks, snaps, and snatches insects of all kinds from the 

 leaves. 



Among the first to detect it in the very act of thus 

 hunting was Tomes, who observed a bat of this species actively 

 engaged around the sprigs of a spindle tree which extended 

 across a window. The tree was in bloom at the time, and was 

 surrounded by a cloud of micro-lepidoptera, on which the bat 

 was feeding at a distance of scarcely four feet from the open 

 window, so that it was easy to see the whole proceeding, and 

 to determine with certainty the manner in which the food was 

 taken. With scarcely an exception the moths were picked 

 from the leaves while resting there, only one or two being 

 taken on the wing. While thus occupied, the bat hovered 

 much after the manner of the kestrel, and the ears were bent 

 outwards so much as to curl down the sides of the face ; they 

 thus suggested two large cheek-pouches rather than ears, no 

 part of them appearing at a greater elevation than the crown 

 of the head. This could be noted very accurately, as the 

 creature several times hovered scarcely a yard from the face 

 of the observer at the open window, as if desirous of entering. 

 This it afterwards did, and after flying round the room a few 

 times, returned to its feeding. 



Similar observations had been made by Jonathan Couch,^ 

 who, in broad daylight, happened to see one taking some- 

 thing from the surface of a leaf; he imagined that the long 

 ears might act as organs of quick sensation, as the bat .flies 

 amongst leaves which stand thick on a tree. 



Again, Mr G. H. Caton Haigh ^ has watched it in a group 

 of silver-fir trees, which on warm nights in April "appeared 

 full of bats, sometimes flying with the greatest rapidity through 

 the branches and sometimes hovering like great moths at the 

 extremity of the twigs. On going underneath the trees the 

 bats presented a still more curious sight : generally upwards of 

 a score might be seen moving about in the space of a few feet. 

 They appeared frequently to come in contact with the branches, 



• Zoologist, i8S3, 3937. _ 2 j^i^^^ jggj,^ 2^^_ 



