HABITS OF THE GREATER HORSESHOE BAT. 289 



atmosphere — in fact, too cold — for it never woke up, and died in 

 its sleep. 



On Dec. 29tb I visited the caves again. Boring A contained 

 no Bats. Boring B, close at hand, contained two, one on each 

 side of the passage. On entering this cave again in the evening 

 we found that one Bat had disappeared ; the other was just 

 unfolding its wings, and almost immediately flew between my 

 legs and out into the open air, or it appeared to do so, as we did 

 not notice it anywhere on the walls in returning to daylight. 

 These Bats evidently were not hybernating. 



On Jan. 5th I went to the caves again. In boring B one Bat, 

 which was considerably smaller than the other, was hanging in 

 exactly the same position at the same spot on the wall. The large 

 specimen took flight before we could approach it, and went to the 

 entrance of the hole, but, disliking the daylight, returned and 

 pitched, when I caught it. Then we took both to a room in the 

 deserted mine buildings, where we had a good look at the strange 

 little animals. The large one was of a pale buff colour, and about 

 12£ in. across the wings. The colour of the fur of the small one, 

 which was not much more than 8 in. across the wings, was dirty 

 grey. Unlike the other, it made an attempt to walk on the table, 

 but it was a clumsy gait. Both rose from the ground easily, and 

 flew around the room. We took them back to the mouth of the 

 boring, and they went in. It was now getting dark, and on our 

 following them into the hole, after a few moments' grace, they 

 came out and disappeared. But when, before leaving, we went 

 into boring A, previously empty, there were two Bats flying, and 

 we concluded that they were the same pair we had just driven 

 from boring B. On later visits, as I shall show, I repeatedly 

 noticed Bats leaving the caves at dusk on warm nights, but 

 these seemed most reluctant to go abroad, and I rather believe 

 that this was possibly on account of the rain, which was falling 

 very thickly, though the temperature was very mild. 



On Jan. 11th entered borings A and B, which were empty. 

 In B, I picked up, at the end of the passage, several elytra of a 

 wingless geodephagous beetle belonging to the genus Pterostichus, 

 possibly P. niger ; also remains of certain moths (Scotosia dubitata 

 and Gonoptera libatrix), several dipterons (including, I believe, 

 Eristalis tenax, or some closely allied species), and a few remains of 



