472 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



when at large, capture most, if not all, of their food during flight 

 — I have known a captive Long-eared Bat to remain on the wing 

 for over an hour at one time— and it seems in the highest degree 

 probable that they habitually use this method to secure insects 

 which are large and vigorous, and therefore difficult to manage, 

 without being compelled to alight. 



One species at any rate has actually been observed to use the 

 interfemoral membrane as a pouch when on the wing. My friend 

 Mr. J. E. B. Masefield writes, under date March 1st, 1899 : — 

 " I have no doubt whatever that the Long-eared Bat makes use 

 of the interfemoral pouch in the way you mention. I have been 

 close to them when picking moths off sallows, and the Bat always 

 hovers when taking off the moth, and bends up the tail so as to 

 form a receptacle for the insect as it drops. As you know, the 

 sallow-feeding Noctuce {Tceniocampa gothica, stabilis, instabilis, 

 cruda, &c.) all drop immediately the flower or bush is touched or 

 shaken, and thus the head of the Bat and the interfemoral pouch 

 form a trap from which the moth cannot escape. When feeding 

 in captivity I have often seen this Bat, as soon as it had seized a 

 moth, sit, as it were, on its tail and double up its head in the way 

 you describe. The Long-eared Bat does not always succeed in 

 holding a large moth at the first snap, and this is an additional 

 argument in favour of your theory." A Long-eared Bat which I 

 found in the old copper- mines on Alderley Edge, and kept for 

 some days in February last, used always to thrust moths 

 (Scotosia dubitata and Gonoptera libatrix) into its pouch, but 

 only treated mealworms in this manner when they struggled 

 violently, seizing and eating them at other times quite openly. 



In July and August I caught several examples of Daubenton's 

 Bat (Myotis daubentoni) as they emerged from a hole beneath the 

 eaves of a house near Redes Mere, Cheshire. They seized and 

 ate mealworms quite openly, but always thrust moths into the 

 interfemoral pouch. Small thin-bodied moths (Cidaria populata) 

 were thrust in and withdrawn again almost immediately ; a larger 

 species (Urapteryx sambucata) was obviously more difficult to 

 manage, whilst vigorous thick-bodied species (Xylophasia polyodon, 

 Triphaena pronuba, and Mamestra brassicce) occasioned many strug- 

 gles, and were not firmly secured until they had been held in the 

 pouch for some seconds. Once, one of the Bats, having seized a 



