NOTKS AND QUERIES. 71 



recorded by Thompson, in his account of Irish Mammalia, as having been 

 killed in the same county in January, 1850. I have received several 

 specimens of another variety which occurs persistently on the coast from 

 Malahide to Balbriggan, Co. Dublin. In this the colour is a rich buff, 

 shading into pure white on the lower parts ; the eyes are a pale straw-yellow, 

 with a greenish tint. Of this variety 1 have had a number of specimens, 

 and have seen others in the market from time to time, but have never heard 

 of it in any other district except that mentioned. I have at the present 

 time a doe hare and leveret a few days old, both taken together, the young 

 one exactly similar to the parent. — Edward Williams (2, Dame Street, 

 Dublin). 



Destruction of Vermin in Pennsylvania. — The legislature of Pennsyl- 

 vania has recently passed a law by which it has been decided to pay the 

 following capitation fees: — Wolves, 10 dols. ; Wild Cats, 2 dols. ; Foxes, 

 1 dol. ; Minks, 25 cents. The fox-hunters are up in arms, and tried hard 

 to prevent the passing of the Bill, but the interests of the poultry-farmers 

 carried the day. 



Food of Bats. — Mr Aplin is no doubt correct in attributing (p. 382) 

 the small hoards of moths' wings which we so frequently find in outhouses 

 and other sheltered places to the work of the Long-eared Bat; though the 

 readers of ' The Zoologist' will recollect that it was at one time difficult to 

 convince some correspondents that they were not collected by either spider 

 or mouse. My office-porch is a favourite place for these bats to devour the 

 bodies of their moths while hanging suspended from the roof, at the same 

 time nipping off their wings, which fall to the doorstep, and may sometimes 

 be seen in numbers the following morning — principally those of Noctuce, 

 together with a few beetle-elytra, and an occasional wing of the large spotted 

 winged cranefly. These bats some summer evenings may be observed 

 constantly flitting in and out, but some evenings seemed much more 

 successful than others, just as the entomologist is with his captures at sugar. 

 One summer eveniug, about August, some twenty-five years ago, I was 

 much interested in watching a party of the Long-eared Bat flitting round 

 a small arbutus shrub, the numerous blossoms of which had attracted great 

 numbers of Plusia gamma. Many of these moths were actually taken on 

 the blossoms, the bat closing its wings, folding down the ears, and making 

 its meal there and then without quitting the tree. The Noctule, however, 

 seems to masticate its food while on the wing, the grating of the teeth 

 being plainly audible as it passes to and fro over-head. I saved the 

 contents of the stomach of a Noctule I shot last September. It was a filthy 

 looking mass when emptied into a cup of water, and required repeated 

 washing to cleanse. Even now the insect-remains are covered with floccu- 

 lent matter which prevents a free view of them under the microscope. One 



