4012 Quadrupeds. 



what alacrity he must have bustled home and related his adventures 

 to his family, when he found that the coast was clear, and he might 

 venture to unroll. 



Alfred Charles Smith. 



Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 

 August 10, 1853. 



Vespertilio emarginatus. — In Mr. Couch's interesting paper on bats (Zool. 3936), 

 this species is incidentally mentioned without any comment on its rarity, or rather, on 

 its slender claim to a place in the British Fauna. It is said by the original describer, 

 M. Geoffroy, that M. Alexander Brongniart took a single specimen in the English 

 Channel ; and he adds, on this very insufficient evidence, that the species is " assez 

 commune en Angleterre." The species which has received this name in Mr. Jenyns' 

 ' Manual,' is V. Daubentonii of Leisler ; and Mr. Bell, at the time of publishing his 

 ' British Quadrupeds,' had no further information on the subject. Its claim to rank 

 as a British species has therefore been generally ignored ; and as its reintroduction by 

 Mr. Couch is a matter of great interest, perhaps that gentleman will obligingly give 

 some further particulars respecting it. — Edward Newman. 



Occurrence of the Reddish Gray Bat (Vespertilio Nattereri) in Ireland. — I have to 

 record the occurrence of the reddish gray bat (Vespertilio Nattereri) at Levitstown, on 

 the confines of the counties of Kildare and Queen's ; at which place I was fortunate 

 enough, in company with F. Haughton, Esq., to procure no less than nine full-grown 

 specimens of this bat, and one of Vespertilio Pipistrellus. Seven of them, and the 

 pipistrelle, were captured with a butterfly-net when coming out of a hole in the abut- 

 ment of Tankardstown Bridge, which here crosses the Barrow : the other two speci- 

 mens were shot by Mr. Haughton, as they were flying down the river. The following 

 notes of their capture may be useful. The hole out of which the specimens were pro- 

 cured is situated about 4 feet above the water's edge, and seems to contain a large 

 colony of these interesting little animals, as the edges of all the stones around the hole 

 are polished with their running over them. I was led to watch the hole by my friend's 

 saying he had been told that fifty-three bats were seen coming out of the hole at one 

 time, and that he himself had counted thirty-five and upwards. Accordingly, on the 

 23rd of June, at half-past 8 o'clock in the evening, we repaired to the bridge, and even 

 at that early hour the squeaking and chirping that proceeded from the hole was asto- 

 nishing. This evening we captured two specimens of V. Nattereri and the pipistrelle. 

 The former began to fly at about half-past 9, the pipistrelle about half an hour later. 

 We counted forty-one bats coming out, and even then there were numbers remaining 

 in the hole, if we might judge from the chirping coming from it. The next evening 

 was harsh and cloudy, and only twenty-nine bats came out : all those captured this 

 evening were V. Nattereri, as V. Pipistrellus was too cunning, and dodged the net. 

 The first bat came out of the hole at about half-past 9: about half an hour previously, 

 however, bats came up the river, doubtless either from the ruins of an old church, or 

 from Levitstown mill. The evening becoming more tempestuous, V. Nattereri begau 

 to return to the nests at 10, flying about and almost striking us. It was quite pos- 

 sible to distinguish V. Nattereri from V. Pipistrellus, both on wing and when coming 



