328 Whitaker : Notes on the Breeding Habits of Bats. 



occurred repeatedly during- the first two days. I kept gently 

 pushing" the young" one under her mother, but in a short time 

 she would leave it again, and I attribute this to the fact that she 

 had now been without food for nearly three days. On the 

 evening of the third day after her capture, when the young one 

 was over 48 hours old, both appeared so w^eak and felt so cold 

 that I decided that it was a case of making the mother eat or of 

 losing both. Accordingly I took her out of the cage, and 

 holding" her by the skin at the back of the neck shoved a meal- 

 worm into her mouth. As soon as she felt something between 

 her teeth she bit savagely at it, and mealworms being an 

 irresistible delicacy to Bats, no sooner had she tasted it than she 

 kept on biting until she had eaten it. I then gave her a second, 

 then a third, and so on until she had actually consumed the 

 enormous number of eight dozen, and so eager did she get that 

 if another mealworm was not forthcoming the instant she had 

 finished one, she would run excitedly round and round on the 

 table and bite at anything within reach. After this enormous 

 meal she had a good drink, and then when I put her back in the 

 cage and gave the young one to her I was delighted to see her 

 take to it at once. She first seized it quite roughly in her 

 mouth, and taking no notice of its vigorous squeaking and 

 struggling proceeded to give it a good wash and brush, much 

 after the style of a Cat washing" its kitten. She then tucked it 

 away under the skin between the shoulder and thigh, pushing- 

 it so far round that it appeared only as a protuberance on her 

 back (see Plate XXII., Fig. 4). This I found later was the 

 invariable method of carrying the young one, who was packed 

 away like this, head downwards, all along, and suckled from this 

 position by merely stretching its neck a little. For the first 

 week my Noctule always kept the young one tucked under her 

 right wing, as tar as I saw, and I believe it suckled from that 

 side only. Later it put it under either wing indifferently. 



After the third day I had no further trouble over feeding the 

 mother whilst I kept her. I had only to open the cage door at 

 any time of night or day, and chirrup to her, and she would 

 prick up her ears and come shuffling- quickly down the side and 

 across the floor and on to my hand, and there take as many 

 mealworms as I would give her. She was particularly tame, 

 especially for a Noctule, and never once tried to bite me, though 

 I often held her on my hand whilst feeding her. Usually she 

 would bring the young one with her, in which case the young 

 one clung to her with its teeth and was dragged along under 



Naturalist, 



