Quadrupeds. Ill 



found it very difficult to procure specimens ; and too little is gene- 

 rally known of this class of animated beings to allow of my obtain- 

 ing much information from others that could be relied on ; conse- 

 quently I have succeeded in establishing only five of the fourteen or 

 fifteen British species, though I cannot doubt that more are indige- 

 nous. 



Tlie Pipistrelle is common. 



Of the Serotine I have procured several specimens : three from 

 Newchurch, one from Brading, and four from Appledurcombe ; and on 

 June 7th of this year was brought me, caught alive in a hole in a 

 wall at Bonchurch, a specimen about three parts grown ; from which 

 I infer, that the bat, or at least this species, does not attain its full 

 size during the first year. 



DaubentorCs Bat has been obtained four or five times, but I think 

 it is common. Its habits appear to be more diurnal, and less dormi- 

 tory than those of most other bats ; one specimen in my possession 

 was shot flying up and down the high road in Bonchurch about three 

 o'clock in the afternoon of January 19th. 



The Long-eared Bat I have obtained several times, but do not 

 consider it so abundant as either Daubenton's, or the Pipistrelle. An 

 interesting variety of this bat was brought me by a friend in March 

 last. The fore parts of the back and breast were of so much paler 

 a tint than usual, that I instituted a careful comparison between it 

 and an ordinary specimen : detecting, as I thought, some slight varia- 

 tion of form in different parts, I judged it best to forward both indi- 

 viduals to head quarters, and accordingly despatched them by post 

 (naturalists ought to subscribe liberally to the memorial to the ori- 

 ginator of the penny post) to Mr. J. E. Gray, who pronounced the 

 one to be only a variety of P. auritus, but considered it worthy of a 

 place in the British Museum. 



The larger Horseshoe Bat has come into my possession several 

 times, and T think it is far from uncommon. The width of the flying 

 membrame enables me to distinguish it, when on the wing, from the 

 Serotine. On the 18th of December, 1843, two individuals, male and 

 female, were brought me alive, having been captured in a crevice of 

 the cliff over Bonchurch. There was a peculiarity about them which 

 appears not to have bsen recorded as belonging to this species : 

 around the throat, and suspended over the chest, was a well defined 

 tippet, the fur of which was much longer, rather paler in colour, and, 

 as appeared to me, of a somewhat finer texture. A remarkably large 

 individual, caught June 5th, had no such tippet, while two others, 



