152 
NOTES ON OXON BATS. 
(h). Capture. —This is a very difficult bat to catch, as it Hies so low 
that it is useless to use a gauze net; if shot, it often falls into the 
water, when, from its small size, it is difficult to discern it in the dark. 
It may, however, be caught with a rod and line baited with a moth 
or fly, the hook catching in the bat’s wing, as it strikes down at the 
moth ; this method of obtaining examples should be practised from a 
bridge, and the moth should be allowed to hang about an inch from 
the water. My discovery of this bat at Oxford was purely accidental. 
One evening, as I was returning from fishing, I noticed a great number 
of bats flitting over the river by Medley Lock. Standing on the 
water’s edge, I struck at them with my fishing rod as they flew past. 
Very soon I had a crowd of bats fluttering round my rod ; one I 
knocked into the water, another into the sedges. Subsequently I 
identified them by comparison with examples already existing in the 
Oxford Museum. 
(c). In Gonfineinent. —This bat is difficult to tame, as it does not 
take at all kindly to raw meat; whilst the moths which constitute its 
natural diet are not easily procured in sufficient numbers. 
V. —The Long-eared Bat. 
(rt). General. —This is considered by some writers to be the most 
abundant of our bats, but personally I have never found it so, being 
able to procure a common bat almost at any time during the warmer 
months, whilst I rarely ever see the long-eared bats except in certain 
localities, almost withoiit exception the environs of churches or other 
ancient buildings. During flight the delicate ears are extended 
straight forwards, and must, I think, assist the long-eared bat consider¬ 
ably in hunting up the moths and small nocturnal beetles on which it 
feeds. I have watched long-eared bats in the act of hovering over the 
blossom of the ivy which usually crowns old buildings, either waiting 
until a moth that has previously settled happens to take wing, or 
steadily picking it off. 
(h). Capture. —This bat has a peculiarly dashing flight which renders 
it almost an impossible mark for a gun, and the way in which the 
stroke of even my large net is avoided is quite surprising. This faculty 
is, I believe, due to the ears, which, going so far in front of their 
owner, forewarn it, and give it time to avoid the net by a dexterous 
movement. This bat, like the pipistrelle, often flies at noonday, when 
it may sometimes be captured basking on a wall. 
[In common with the noctule and the pipistrelle, the long-eared 
bat haunts Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.—H. A. M.] 
(c). In Confinement .—This bat is very easily tamed when once it can 
be persuaded to eat raw meat; as a rule it requires the expenditure of 
a large amount of patience to coax a long-eared bat to eat, but when 
once that object is attained the trouble will be amply repaid by the 
interesting traits of the captive. 
The best sort of bat cage that I myself am acquainted with is a 
rather deep box, say six inches deep by sixteen inches broad, set up on 
