238 RHINOLOPHID^— RHINOLOPHUS 



with perfect ease all sorts of objects, and, being able to instantly 

 detect the presence even of an almost invisible obstacle such 

 as glass, will examine a window pane, as if in search of some 

 means of escape, yet without so much as a touch of a wing. 

 When it is considered that the glass would appear to be — as 

 regards the sense of vision — equally perceptible to the one bat 

 as to the other, an experiment of this kind becomes particularly 

 interesting, tending, as it does, to show that a high develop- 

 ment of the cutaneous system is, in the Horseshoes, accom- 

 panied by a correspondingly acute perception of the environment. 



The habit of flying about low down in a room, and amongst 

 the legs of tables and chairs, is so characteristic of these bats 

 that it immediately impresses itself upon the observer. It is 

 not unlikely that it has some close connection with the flight- 

 less insects, beetles and spiders, which, as Mr T. A. Coward 

 has shown, form a part of their diet. Not (as mentioned above) 

 only do these bats show great alertness in avoiding obstacles to 

 their flight, even in a place to which they are strangers, but 

 when at rest they display a remarkable power of perceiving an 

 approaching danger, even when it is behind them, or otherwise at 

 such a distance as to be out of the range of their necessarily 

 limited vision. In this connection, Mr Charles Oldham says : — 



" Even when sunk in their winter sleep, they appreciate 

 a man's approach. The eyes are, of course, then shrouded by 

 the wings and the sense of danger must be conveyed to them 

 either by hearing, smell, or, as seems to be most probable, by 

 the exercise of their extraordinary tactile sense which enables 

 them to actually feel the approaching danger. I have often, 

 whilst still some paces from it, watched a sleeping bat of this 

 species raise and lower its body by flexing the legs and twist 

 it from side to side with a jerky, spasmodic action. The 

 enveloping wings are meanwhile slowly relaxed and unfolded ; 

 then suddenly the bat drops from its foothold and flits away 

 into the recesses of the cave." 



It is remarkable that, although thus alert and active to 

 such a surprising degree, the senses upon which a Greater 

 Horseshoe relies for its information in regard to the outer 

 world are not those of sight or smell. Mr Bruce F. Cummings^ 



^ Zoologist, 1907, 292. 



