68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Leisler's Bat in Yorkshire. — Mr. Arthur Whitaker, of Worsborough, 

 near Barnsley, recently sent for my inspection a stuffed specimen of a 

 Leisler's Bat (Pterygistes leisleri, Kuhl), which had been taken, together 

 with two other examples, from a hollow beech at Stainborough, near 

 Barnsley, on May 13th, 1904. The other two Bats were unfortunately 

 destroyed, but Mr. Whitaker is sure that they were similar to the 

 specimen sent to me. All three of them were males. The specimen, 

 and another which was taken in the same locality — also from a beech 

 — on March 23rd, 1903, were subsequently sent to Mr. Oldfield Thomas, 

 who confirmed our identification. So little is known about the distri- 

 bution of Leisler's Bat — at any rate, in England — that every record is 

 of value. In a paper on the species in the ' Irish Naturalist ' (1899, 

 pp. 169-174), Dr. N. H. Alcock described tbe distribution so far as 

 it was known. In Ireland, where it takes the place of the Noctule, it 

 occurs in most counties in the east and north-east, but in England its 

 known distribution is discontinuous. Mr. B. F. Tomes (Bell's 'British 

 Quadrupeds,' 2nd edit. p. 27) speaks of " its not unfrequent appearance 

 at various localities in the course of the Biver Avon, in the counties of 

 Warwick, Worcester, and Gloucester," and mentions " a British-killed 

 specimen in the collection of Mr. F. Bond." Fourteen examples were 

 said to have been obtained in Norfolk (Paine, 'Ann. Nat. Hist.' ii. 

 1839, p. 181), but the identification of these was questioned, and no 

 proof has been forthcoming. In May, 1899, I shot one in Cheshire, 

 and saw another Bat at the same time which resembled in its flight 

 the one I secured (' Zoologist,' 1899, p. 266). In Yorkshire the species 

 has been recorded from three different localities, all within a somewhat 

 limited area in the south of the county. Messrs. Clarke and Boebuck 

 (' Vert. Fauna of Yorks.' 1881, p. 4) mentions three which were taken 

 " about forty years ago " from an old factory chimney-shaft at Hunslet, 

 near Leeds, and that one of these was preserved in the collection of 

 the late Mr. F. Bond. No doubt this is the example mentioned by 

 Mr. Tomes. In 'The Zoologist' (1892, p. 329), Mr. H. Charbonnier 

 states that in May and June, 1890, he received several examples which 



