262 RHINOLOPHID^— RHINOLOPHUS 



They attribute this to the fact that the Lesser Horseshoe is 

 delicate, and does not possess very vigorous powers of flight ; 

 they have satisfied themselves that the least wind interferes 

 enormously with its evolutions, so that it frequently remains 

 at home and fasts at times when other species are able to catch 

 their food. 



Messrs Rollinat and Trouessart made the interesting 

 observation that when a number of mothers and their young 

 are placed together after capture, the young- travelled from one 

 to the other, and were received by all. This fact made the 

 authors think that, unlike other bats, such as the Mouse-eared, 

 the females of this species may possibly assist each other in 

 rearing the young. 



So far no one has succeeded in keeping Lesser Horseshoes 

 alive in confinement for more than a short time. They rarely pro- 

 gress sufficiently in domesticity as to consent to eat, and, as a 

 rule, pine away within three or four days' time. Writing to Mr 

 J. G. Millais of one which he succeeded in keeping alive for 

 four days, Mr Coward remarked that it " took readily to meal- 

 worms, after the juice of one had been smeared on its face ; 

 the first day it would eat only half a mealworm, but the next 

 day it took six fair-sized worms and a small caddis-fly. It 

 would not touch this fly until it had eaten the grubs. This 

 bat found great difficulty in masticating the hard skin of the 

 worms, its teeth being small and its jaws feeble, but it took 

 to them well and asked for more, biting my fingers and even 

 taking a bit of my jacket in its mouth. It drank water from 

 the end of a camel's-hair brush, and also took a little milk." 

 When resting on the table the tail was held above the back, 

 and when it was struggling with a large mealworm there 

 was no movement of the tail perceptible. 



When frightened or attacked, the Lesser Horseshoe Bat 

 squeaks loudly, and its voice has been divided by Mr Coward 

 into two cries, the one a short, sharp "chap" or "chip," and 

 the other a "chatter," each, of much lower pitch than those of 

 most bats. Mr Oldham has likened the former cry, which is 

 uttered both while on the wing and when at rest, and which he 

 renders as " tchek, tchek," to a diminutive of the alarm note 

 of the greater spotted woodpecker. 



