222 VESPERTILIONID^— NYCTERIS 



that this bat is distinctly gregarious ; that its flight begins 

 very early in the evening ; that it is exceptionally active in 

 alighting and passing obstacles ; and that it knows how to 

 catch its prey while at rest. The latter fact was indeed to 

 be expected from its peculiar facial attachments, but it must 

 be remembered that the behaviour of this, as of any other 

 species, may vary so much with the occasion, the individual, or 

 the season, that no hard or fast rule can or should be drawn 

 from the result of merely one or two observations. 



According to Messrs R. Rollinat and E. L. Trouessart, 

 the Barbastelle is in France a hardy species, and that is what 

 might be expected of one whose range includes portions of 

 Skandinavia. Its hibernatory slumber is probably not deep, 

 and it has been captured abroad on a fine New Year's Day.^ 

 For the rest I can only find notes that it has been observed in 

 activity on various dates from 3rd March ^ to 3rd October. 



The breeding habits are unknown, but the late Thomas 

 Southwell showed me a letter from S. Bligh to Henry Stevenson, 

 wherein the newly born young, picked up at Framlingham, 

 Suffolk, in 1865, are said to have been easily recognised by 

 their ears, a character which at all ages is infallible for the 

 distinction of this species. 



[THE HOARY BAT. 



NYCTERIS CINEREUS (Beauvois).^ 



The record* by John Wolley, of the occurrence in South 

 Ronaldshay, Orkney, about September 1847, of a specimen 

 of the Hoary Bat of North America, has long been relegated 

 to obscure corners of British faunal works on the ground that, 

 as indeed Wolley himself supposed, the animal must have been 

 conveyed across the Atlantic accidentally in a ship. The bat 

 was caught by some potato-diggers, and is stated to have been 

 kept alive for some weeks. 



1 See H. P. Blackmore, Zoologist, 1869, 1558. 



2 R. Mitford, ibid., i860, 6953 ; Lilford, ibid., 1894, 395 ; Owen, per Forrest. 



^ For use of Nycteris (replacing Lasiurus), see Miller, Proc. Biol. Soc, Wash- 

 ington, 17th April 1909, go. 



■• Under the name Vespertilio pruinosus. See Zoologist, 1849, 2343 ; 1850, 

 2695-96, 2813-14, for an accurate description, excepting only that the number of the 

 teeth is given incorrectly. 



