MAMMALS OF SOUTH CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 243 



a mile or so beyond our house used to be known as Polecat 

 Farm. When the growing town had begun to creep up Mill 

 Eoad, I purchased a plot of ground much farther out in the 

 country than Polecat Farm, and immediately on entering into 

 possession had a lodge put up, which would, I thought, be con- 

 venient for observing wild life, and yet not be too far from 

 Cambridge and my tutorial work. Although in a very few years 

 the increasing human population drove away the Polecats and 

 the Weasels, I was, by being in this lodge late at night and very 

 early in the morning, able to make notes enough on the wild life 

 of this part to fill a volume. The lodge was fitted up with 

 a fireplace, so that I could have meals when I desired to make a 

 late stay or came off without any breakfast, as would naturally 

 be the case when I went very early in the morning. 



Bats were abundant and so bold it was easy to catch them 

 with a net made of cheese-cloth, and used like a butterfly-net. 

 My object in capturing them was to make out a list of the species. 

 They were mostly Pipistrelles, but there was an occasional 

 Noctule. The last was plentiful about my residence and in the 

 more immediate vicinity of the town. There have been Long- 

 eared Bats also on one or two occasions, but Plecotus auritus has 

 retired before the advancing town, and it is long since I have 

 seen one about Cambridge. 



I am one of those persons who can hear very high-pitched 

 sounds such as those of Bats quite perfectly, while I am deaf to 

 grave ones. I can discriminate the squeak of the Pipistrelle 

 from that of the Noctule, and the tone of the Long-eared Bat is 

 different from either. I have often amused myself by trying to 

 make out the species by the sound of the " tweets " alone ere I 

 verified my guess by capturing the Bat. I have heard Bats 

 squealing in a tone different from those of any of the four most 

 familiar to me, for often when strolling by the river-side I have 

 been gladdened by the extremely high-pitched note of Daubenton's 

 Bat. 



While I am on the subject of Bat whistling I may mention 

 that these little mammals have different tones to express the 

 emotions excited by eager pursuit of an evasive moth, love, fear, 

 and anger. They have their cries of alarm as different to their 

 other tones as are the notes of birds under like circumstances, 



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