186 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



property. It is about a quarter of a mile in length, averaging perhaps 

 eight feet in width, and the same in height. There are in addition two 

 or three subsidiary caves. We examined one side of the cave on our 

 outward way, taking the opposite side on the return, and throwing the 

 light of the tapers, a supply of which Mr. Noble kindly brought with 

 him, on to every little irregularity in the chalk on wall and roof, and 

 into numberless chinks and crannies. We captured more than thirty 

 Bats, the majority of which were Natterer's ; seven Whiskered, about 

 as many Long-eared, and three Daubenton's. I regret that we kept 

 no exact count of the numbers, as we replaced on the roost all the 

 Long-eared, and a good many Natterer's, when we had become suffi- 

 ciently familiar with the species to be sure of their identification by the 

 imperfect light of our flickering tapers. We brought out just twenty 

 Bats. Dr. Wilson reminds me that the Whiskered were all at either 

 end of the cave, north and south, near the entrances, and none in the 

 centre. The Long-eared were all near the north entrance. We 

 found throughout the cave an abundance of sleepy Herald Moths 

 and spiders ; and one large broad- winged Geometer moth was found 

 by Dr. Wilson. A month later (March 14th or 15th) the Hon. 

 N. Charles Rothschild sent one of the Tring Museum staff to Park 

 Place, by permission of Mr. H. Noble, in quest of Bat fleas ; Mr. Noble 

 could not go with him, but sent his gardener as guide. Only four Bats 

 were found, of as many species — Long-eared, Natterer's, Whiskered ; 

 the fourth was a Lesser Horseshoe, a species which, even if not new to 

 the county, * is, at any rate — so far as present knowledge goes — not a 

 resident therein. In an excellent article on the distribution in Great 

 Britain of this species (Zool. 1887, p. 89), the Rev. J. E. Kelsall con- 

 cludes that it does not occur as a resident species to the south-east of 

 Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. The latter county just touches 

 Berks for a length of some half-dozen miles (near Lechlade), but that 

 nearest point is fully forty miles in a straight line from Park Place. 

 Mr. Noble has since written me word that his lodge-keeper reports 

 numerous Bats in his roof ; one evening he counted over sixty come 

 out. Mr. Noble kindly suggests that I should come over there for a 

 night, and that we should endeavour to rig up some kind of net, and 

 catch at least a few for identification ; an offer, I need hardly say, I 

 hope to avail myself of. Mr. Noble has noticed that the Bats desert 

 the cave during the summer, only a stray individual or two being 



* I have not seen the account of the Mammals of Berks in the shortly- 

 expected first volume of the ' Victoria History ' of the county, and do not 

 know who the author of it is. 



