THE GREATER HORSESHOE BAT 241 



across the back, the elbows meeting at the lumbar region, 

 where they touch the tip of the reflexed tail : the forearms, 

 bent sharply at the elbows, are laid lengthwise along the back 

 so that the wrists flank the ears at either side, while the fingers 

 with their connecting membranes are folded over the ventral 

 surface of the body. The tail, instead of being bent forwards 

 is reflexed over the back,^ particularly so in the lesser species, and 

 closely overlaps the wrinkled wings between the fifth fingers and 

 the legs. In captivity the exposed portion of the back is usually 

 much greater, for the wings hang every hour more loosely as 

 the frail creature, which seldom survives capture, grows weaker. 



As a bat hangs suspended when awake, it presents a 

 good deal of animation, changing from one foot to the other, 

 as it cleans itself, or twists and swings apparently to observe 

 anyone who approaches. The head is full of lively action, and, 

 as remarked by Jonathan Couch many years ago, both ears 

 and nose-leaf appear to be very sensitive and mobile. 



The Horseshoes are more partial to caves, particularly 

 those of limestone districts, for their places of retreat, than 

 are any other British species. But they affect also dark old 

 buildings, lofts and roofs of dwelling-houses, as found by R. F. 

 Tomes at Ragley, near Alcester. Their resorts, even when 

 they themselves are hidden safely in the secure recesses of some 

 crack or crevice, are usually betrayed by their excrement. 

 This has in some cases accumulated so deeply on the floor 

 below as to suggest an immemorial tenancy, an inference 

 borne out in the case of the famous Devonshire Cavern, Kent's 

 Hole, by the approximation in condition there of bones of the 

 present species with those of the Mammoth, Spotted Hysena, 

 and Woolly Rhinoceros, as if the bats had resorted to this 

 particular cavern at least from the Pleistocene era. 



The two species of Horseshoe occur together in their 

 favourite caverns, but in Britain the present species had been 

 but little studied until Mr Coward made a special expedition 

 to the Cheddar caves of Somerset, the result of which was to 

 add many facts to our knowledge.^ 



• A fact observed by J. Couch before 1853 {Zoologist, 1853, 3941)- 

 2 See Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), ist August 1907, 312-324 ; also Mem. and Proc. 

 Manchester Lit. and Philosoph. Soc, 52, xi., 1-12, pi. and figs. 1-4, 21st April 1908. 



X 



