71 



NOTES ON BATS. 



(plates II. and nr.). 



ARTHUR WHITAKER, 

 Worsborotigh Bridge. 



The phenomenally cold weather during April and early May 

 of last year caused bats to remain in the torpid condition usual 

 during hibernation for a longer period than they generally do, 

 and May 27th was the first date on which I noticed these 

 creatures flying in any numbers. The evening of that day 

 was particularly warm and still, and in taking a walk round 

 Rockley Dam, a sheet of water about a quarter-of-a-mile long, 

 surrounded by woods, I found that many bats were on the 

 wing. I netted several, all proving to be the common Pipi- 

 strelle (P. pipistrellus). One of these, a female, I kept alive, 

 putting it in a sm_all cage by itself. On the loth of July it 

 gave birth to a single young one, at 3-30 to 4 p.m., clinging 

 head downwards to the cage side at the time, and receiving the 

 young one in its right wing, which was held partially extended 

 for the purpose. Unfortunately, the young bat did not live 

 many days. All my observations in connection with it agree 

 with those previously published,* but the period of gestation is 

 now shown to be not less than 44 days. 



On the 15th of July 1908, a box of bats from Wells was 

 forwarded to me by rail. They had been caught two days 

 previously, and I found the box contained one Leaser Horse- 

 shoe (R. hipposiderus) and four Greater Horseshoes (R. ferrum- 

 equinum). One of the larger species was a female, and had 

 given birth to a young male in transit. The latter was lying 

 on the bottom of the box in a dying condition, but though this 

 was evidently the case, it showed great tenacity to life, clinging 

 to its mother very firmly when I put them together in a small 

 cage. When she became restless and detached and left it, the 

 young bat, though but a day old, hung by one foot from the 

 top of the cage for over fifteen minutes, a favourite resting 

 position for adult bats of this species (See Plate II.. fig. i), but 

 surely an extremely exhausting one for a newly-born individual. 

 The Lesser Horseshoe Bat died a few hours after it came into 

 my possession. It was a female, and contained a fully 

 developed embryo ready for extrusion, 



* ' Naturalist,' 1907, pp. 75, 76, etc. 



1909 March i. 



