240 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



speedily procured for me a sight of a stuffed speci- 

 men of the bat (whose species, until then, had not 

 been named) and a slide containing a small portion 

 of the contents of the stomach. These I exhibited 

 at a meeting of the Linnean Society on November 1 5, 

 1888, and briefly called attention to the facts of the 

 case. But, alas ! the microscope revealed nothing 

 that, in the eyes of such experts as Dr Gunther and 

 Dr F. Day, could be stated positively to appertain 

 to fish ; and it seemed more likely that certain 

 minute iridiscent particles, which were at first 

 supposed by Dr Kingsley to be fragments of fish 

 scales, were portions of the shining wing-cases of 

 coleopterous insects. 



There seemed nothing for it, therefore, but to 

 procure some freshly killed specimens of this bat in 

 alcohol, and to examine carefully the nature of the 

 entire contents of the stomachs. This, through the 

 kindness of His Excellency Sir William Robinson, 

 the Governor of Trinidad, I was enabled to do ; for, 

 acting upon his instructions. Professor M'Carthy, 

 of the Government Laboratory at St Anne's, was 

 good enough to forward to me three separate con- 

 signments of specimens, togethfer with some micro- 

 scopical slides of his own preparation, the examina- 

 tion of which has resulted in placing beyond all 

 doubt the fact that in Trinidad Noctilio leporinus 

 does habitually prey upon small fish. These 

 specimens were exhibited by me at a meeting of 

 the Linnean Society on February 21, 1889. In three 

 separate reports which accompanied the specimens 

 sent to me at intervals during the spring of that 



