110 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Notes on the Occurrence of Lesser Horseshoe Bat in Devonshire. — 

 In view of the small number of instances in which the Lesser Horse- 

 shoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposiderns) has been recorded as taken in 

 Devonshire, and of the fact that none of these cases occur in the 

 neighbourhood of Exeter, the following notes may be worth placing 

 on record. Early in December of last year, being anxious to replace 

 the existing old and faded Bats in the Koyal Albert Memorial Museum, 

 Exeter, I consulted a list of local mammals published in the ' Trans- 

 actions ' of the Devonshire Association, with the object of seeing what 

 could be obtained locally, and there found a manuscript note stating 

 that " both Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats were said to have been 

 taken at Pocombe Quarry in 1879." This quarry is about a mile west 

 of Exeter. Acting on this information, I visited Pocombe a few days 

 later. There was no sign of either species in the quarry, but I took a 

 male Lesser Horseshoe in the crevice of a rock near there, and on re- 

 visiting the place two days later found a second male not many yards 

 from where the first was obtained. The second one I had alive for five 

 days, but, although insects were placed in its box, it then died, appa- 

 rently without having made any attempt to feed. My next expedition 

 in search of Bats (Feb. 2nd) was to Duryard, not quite a mile north- 

 east of the city. Here, in a large disused cellar, I found two males 

 and one female, all hanging separately, but within eight or ten feet of 

 one another. I was surprised at this, having always understood that 

 the sexes usually, if not invariably, frequent separate retreats. These 

 three were also kept alive, but one died on the ninth day, the other two 

 on the tenth day. On February 16th I searched some limestone rocks 

 about ten miles west of Exeter, and in a cave there found a male, 

 which I replaced on the rock. It is curious that those kept should not 

 have lived longer at this time of year, when they are supposed to be 

 hybernating, unless under natural conditions they wake up and feed 

 upon the insects in their retreats. There was certainly a large amount 

 of insect life in the cellar, and in the cave visited yesterday, but, as far 

 as could be seen, none in the rock where the first two were taken. 



