THE LONG-EARED BAT 



207 



a smaller assemblage took possession for one or two days 

 only, of a space between two beams in the roof of an 

 old mill. This last - mentioned swarm probably consisted of 

 females, with new-born young; for an infant specimen, with 

 eyes unopened, was found on July nth crawling on the floor 

 immediately below the crevice in which the adult Bats were at 

 the time visible." Since these swarms are so much more fre- 

 quently noticed in July and August than at other seasons ; and 

 since there is evidence, as in the instance last quoted, that they 

 are not composed exclusively of the young of the year, Messrs 

 Alcock and Moffat are led to infer that the social instincts of 

 this species are strongest in summer, and that individuals 

 which have lived solitary lives for the rest of the year become 

 at that season gregarious. It is probable, however, that this 

 "swarming" is in some ways comparable to the "camping- 

 out" for nursing purposes of the Noctule in summer, and it is 

 reasonable to suppose that, as in other bats, a seasonal change 

 of quarters is habitual. Mr Oldham finds the Cheshire and 

 Derbyshire tunnels tenanted only during winter, and the same 

 remark, although not of invariable application, appears to be 

 true also of the Henley cavern. 



The cry of this species, although not loud, is shrill and 

 acute, but it is uttered with more vigour when the animal is 

 annoyed. Messrs Alcock and Moffat find it in use by the 

 young when only a few days old, and Mr J. G. Millais graphic- 

 ally dwells upon the considerable variation to which it can be 

 subjected, remarking that " one call is uttered when signalling 

 to its own species, and apparently the same note is uttered 

 during a quarrel ; but a very different cry — a querulous, long- 

 drawn, childlike note — is used when it is handled or surprised. " 



The Long-eared Bat gives birth to its young in June or 

 July, the number being usually one,^ but Bingley, on the 

 authority of a Mr Carlisle, incidentally mentions a female 

 flying about with two attached to her body. A French 

 naturalist. Monsieur E. Oliver, informed Monsieur H. Gadeau 

 de Kerville that the young clamber from one mother to another, 

 and are by them indiscriminately carried about and nourished, 



R. C. R. Jordan, Zoologist, 1843, 75 ; Alcock and Moflfat, Irish Naturalist, 1901, 

 348 (nth July). 



