308 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



in the den until ten o'clock, but no Bat entered or left the hole after 

 9.36. From ten there was a slight squeaking in the den at long 

 intervals until 2.40 (eighty-five minutes before sunrise), when the noise 

 increased, and more than one Bat emerged — in the gloom I could not 

 tell the exact number — and all was still until 3.20 (forty-five minutes 

 before sunrise) when three returned. These dashed round among 

 the branches, alighting on the trunk at the mouth of the hole once or 

 twice, and then dashing away again before entering the den, as Noctules 

 generally do on returning from the vespertinal flight. There was no 

 squeaking after the Bats entered the den, and I heard none until 4.2, 

 when I left the tree. On the evening of July 12th I went again to 

 Oulton, but was disappointed to find that the Noctules had vacated the 

 tree ; at any rate, I neither saw nor heard any between 8.20 p.m. and 

 2.35 a.m. I then went down to the mere, but, although at 2.45 I 

 could see several Daubenton's Bats skimming over the water, it was 

 too dark to make out any Noctules which may have been hawking 

 overhead. At 3.3, when it was fairly light, I saw one, and from then 

 until 3.47 (thirteen minutes before sunrise), when the last disappeared, 

 several more, though not nearly so many as one may see flying over 

 the mere on any summer evening. — Charles Oldham (Knutsford). 



Daubenton's Bat (Myotis daubentoni) in Denbighshire. — Little is 

 known as yet of the distribution of Daubenton's Bat in Wales. It may 

 therefore be of interest to record that on the evening of June 13th last 

 •I watched several examples skimming in their characteristic fashion 

 over a quiet reach of the Elwy, just above the bridge at Llanfairtal- 

 haiarn. — Charles Oldham (Knutsford). 



Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Noctilio hipposideros) in Shropshire. — On 

 July 6th, 1904, a specimen of this Bat was flying around the hall of 

 my house ; it had evidently entered through the open doors, and on 

 my approach with a light it became dazzled, and enabled me to capture 

 it. This is the first record of this species for Shropshire, and it is now 

 in the Worcester Museum. It is evidently an uncommon species in 

 this neighbourhood, as since then I have been unable to procure any 

 additional specimens. — J. Steele-Elliott (Dowles Manor, Shrop- 

 shire). 



Winter Whitening of the Stoat in Britain. — In ' The Zoologist ' for 

 1904, p. 190, 1 see that Capt. G. H. Barrett-Hamilton asks any naturalist 

 to add to the evidence which he already possesses as to the preponder 1 

 ance of female Stoats among the instances of winter whitening. In 

 January of this year I got two very beautiful specimens near here, each 



