SOCIOLOGY. 
149 
scenery and strata of the Eastern and Western Counties, the peaceful 
nature of the former, and the harsh and rugged character of the 
latter, and finally pointed out that “ in the Midland District we stood 
midway between these two types—half-way down the great geological 
scale—that there was one district where these two kinds of rocks were 
to be met together, and there was only one large town where they could be 
seen. Thedistrict was the Midland District—the townwasBirmingham.” 
Apropos of the same generalization, Mr. Greatheed has directed my 
attention to two recent articles in the Bevue des deux Mondes* attri¬ 
buting George Eliot’s powers partly to her Midland sympathies. 
Indeed George Eliot herself, in reply to some questions of an American 
lady, writes :—“ It is interesting, I think, to know whether a writer 
was born in a central or border district—a condition which always has 
a strongly determining influence. I was born in Warwickshire, but 
certain family traditions connected with more northerly districts made 
these districts a region of poetry to me in my early childhood.”! 
I feel that I have only touched on the foregoing points very crudely 
and roughly, but I think Sociological students will accept some of 
the conclusions, and that they will probably agree with me that no 
more generally interesting field for the study of Sociology exists than 
the town in which we live. 
(To be continued.) 
SOME NOTES ON OXON BATS.j 
BY THE LATE EllANK NOBTON, ESQ. 
ARRANOEI) AND COMMUNICATED BY THE REV. H. A. MACPHERSON, B.A. 
I. — General Observations. 
(a). Predatory Habits. — Early in the year bats haunt the vicinity of 
rivers and pools, to prey upon the different species of Ephemeridie, 
which abound at that season ; but towards the end of May they repair 
to the lanes and hedges, in search of cockchafers, and the cockchafers 
being local in appearance, I have seen hundreds of noctules in a 
single field at the same time. In autumn they frequent old ivy- 
covered walls and ruins for the moths which crowd to the blossoms of 
that plant. The long-eared bat especially delights in the neighbourhood 
of ancient buildings, such as Carisbrooke Castle, or Godstow Priory. 
{b). Breeding Habits. — The other great business besides that of 
hunting seems to be the propagation of their species, at which time 
they are very active, pursuing one another through the air with 
wonderful velocity and discordant shrieks, chasing one unhappy 
female to the entrance of their abode, where she is joined by one or 
two more, and the melee becomes perfectly bewildering. I have 
watched their frolics by the hour on a fine evening at a small row of 
hollow beeches near Oxford, where scores of bats make their abode, and 
have seen about thirty bats wheeling round the trees at the same time. 
Revue des deux Mondes, Mar. 1,15,1885, Art. “ George Eliot,” par M. Emile 
Montegut. 
f Matliilde Blind’s Life of George Eliot, 1883, page 12. 
1 Bead before the Oxfordshire Natural History Society, April 27th, 1883, 
