PLECOTUS 209 



feeding Noctuce ... all drop immediately the flower or bush is 

 touched or shaken, and thus the head of the Bat and the 

 interfemoral pouch form a trap from which the moth cannot 

 escape." ^ Mr William Evans has observed that in flight the 

 tail and interfemoral membrane are not stretched out behind, 

 but curved downwards and forwards at about half their length. 



The toilet of Mr Oldham's captives was no less elaborate 

 than that of other species, practically the whole body being 

 licked, scratched, or combed by the aid of one foot, the bat 

 meanwhile hanging suspended by the other. The long ears 

 were bent downwards by the wrists, and thoroughly licked 

 with the tongue. 



Mr Oldham's bats slept either suspended by the toes or 

 lying prone upon the floor. He noticed that of one of them, 

 after a few days' confinement, although apparently in good 

 health, had undergone a change in the colour of the wing- 

 membranes from light grey to a dull muddy hue. 



Neither in confinement nor when at large does this bat 

 manifest a special regard for any particular kind of food. 

 Many moths, besides those mentioned above by Mr Aplin, the 

 remains of beetles, dipterous flies, in particular the blue-bottle,^ 

 have been found in its rejectamenta by Professor G. H. Car- 

 penter, while Mr J, E. Harting^ mentions various moths of 

 the genus TcBniocampa, and Mr Jeffery the large spotted-winged 

 crane-fly. Mr Caton Haigh believes that it also takes 

 small caterpillars; Mr J. D. Batten has fed it with grass- 

 hoppers in confinement ; Mr Oldham with moths * and meal- 

 worms, and Mr J. Armitage^ with flies, moths, pupae, small shreds 

 of beef, and mealworms. He has known one to eat twenty 

 of the latter at a single meal. 



Like other species, this bat occasionally appears on the 

 wing in broad daylight,^ and its activity on such occasions or 

 in mid-winter must be ascribed to the causes already recited. 

 That the species, like most others, is not a creature of unvary- 

 ing habits, is shown by the capture of one by a lighthouse 



' Zoologist, 1899, 472. 2 Calliphora erythrocephala. ^ Zoologist, 1889, 245. 



Gonoptera libairix axid Scotosia dubitata. ^ Naturalist, 1905, 39. 



F- W. L. Ross, Zoologist, 1845, 11 58; Couch, Journ. cit., 1853, 3942; Lilford, 

 Joum.cit., 1887, 66; Oldham, Journ. cit., 1890, 349 ; R. Newstead in Coward and 

 Oldham, 1895, i66 ; W. Evans ; Forrest in MS., etc., etc. 



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