2 VESPBRTILIONID^. 



may have been expected from the similarity of climate 

 and of temperature, as well as from the propinquity of 

 the two countries, several which he had first discovered 

 in Germany, as well as others previously described, have 

 since been found in difierent parts of Great Britain. 



So many good observers have of late years paid 

 attention to the more obscure species of European 

 mammalia without increasing the number of species, 

 that the opinion expressed in the first edition of this 

 work, that many other species of Bats would be found 

 indigenous to our islands, cannot now be entertained. 

 In the present edition, instead of adding to the British 

 list, we have to exclude three species, viz., the Vespertilio 

 •pygmaus of Dr. Leach, the Vesp. emarginatus of Geoffrey, 

 and the Plecotus brevimanus of Jenyns. The former of 

 these is obviously the young of the Pipistrelle ; the 

 second, although a well-marked species, and occurring in 

 France and Belgium, has never, so far as is at present 

 known, appeared in the British Islands ; and the third is 

 now, by common consent, regarded as the young of 

 Plecotus auritus. 



The species indigenous to this country, and indeed all 

 the European ones, belong to the true insectivorous 

 division of the order. The general habits of these are 

 therefore similar, and may with advantage be detailed 

 in this place. 



The whole structure of these singular animals is evi- 

 dently and admirably calculated for the exercise of con- 

 siderable powers of flight. In this point of view, they 

 form not only a very distinct and circumscribed group 

 within themselves, but, in fact, there exists no other 

 type amongst the different classes of vertebrated animals, 

 excepting of course the whole class of birds, on which 

 any separate group is modelled, having similar powers 



