6 Quadrupeds, 



was the destined denizen of still severer climes. Nature ever adapts 

 her creatures to the circumstances under which she has chosen to 

 place them. 



Cuvier has recorded his opinion that the mammoth was specifically 

 distinct from either of the existing elephants, and has named it Ele- 

 phiis primigenius. The principal differences which he points out are 

 these : the tusks are longer, more curved, and towards the extremity 

 have an inclination outwards ; the alveoli in which they are placed 

 are larger and more produced ; the neck is shorter, the bones alto- 

 gether stronger, and the body thickly covered with hair. In a draw- 

 ing, professedly made on the spot and sent to St. Petersburgh, the 

 animal was represented without a trunk, with pointed erect ears, and 

 a bristly upright mane ; but the inferences drawn from the parts now 

 remaining militate against the correctness of this drawing, and must 

 be received in preference to a production which, from the mutilated 

 state of the carcass, must necessarily have been indebted to the ima- 

 gination of the draughtsman for some of its details. K. 



Short Communications on Quadrupeds. 



Note on the occurrence of Bats at Epping. The Barbastelle bat 

 (Plecotus Barbastellus), I am inclined to believe, is not uncommon in 

 the Forest. I have had five specimens brought to me at various 

 times, all taken on the edge of the Forest ; and have frequently seen 

 bats, which I believe to be this species, flying in the shady parts of 

 the Forest at dusk, but it is by no means easy to obtain them, fi'om 

 the difficulty of finding them when shot. The other species which I 

 have found here are the great bat ( VespertUio noctula), the common 

 bat ( V. pipistrellus), the whiskered bat ( V. mystacinus), Natterer's 

 bat {V. Nattereri), and the long-eared bat {Plecotus auritus). I saw 

 V. Nattereri flying about the lanes at Sawtry, in Huntingdonshire, in 

 June last. — H. Doubleday ; Epping, December 6, 1841. 



Notice of a Bat flying by dayUgJit. One sunny day in August, 

 four or five years since, I was on Wimbledon Common, when my at- 

 tention was directed upwards by the screaming of swallows, and the 

 cause of their disquiet then became apparent. A large bat was sail- 

 ing about most majestically, attacked on all sides by the swallows, 

 who seemed ill to relish the intrusion of this lover of twilight into day 

 and their society. As the sun was shining brightly, I was surprised 

 to see the bat on the wing ; but I was much more interested by ob- 



