116 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
irregular, has the fluttering character of that of the Pipestrelle. This bat is active in 
Europe in the summer months, but hibernates during winter. In Egypt, however, 
I found it quite lively from December to February. The subject of hiberuatiou in 
the different species of bats is one well worthy of investigation. 
In repose the ears of this bat are contracted along the upper border and across the 
line of transverse striation, so that they are partially folded back towards the sides of 
the neck, allowing the tragi to project freely by themselves like small independent 
ears, the little lobule towards the base of the inner margin of the ear also appearing in 
profile. Whenever the animal awakes or rouses itself from repose, the ears assume 
the erect position covering the tragi, and in death the ears always assume the erect 
attitude. 
Distributed over the Paleearctic region; it also ranges to the heights of Abyssinia 
and Shoa, and on the westward side of the African continent to Teneriffe. 
A nearly allied species described by Hodgson ^ from the Himalayas under the name 
of P. homoclirous, and of which the type specimen is in the British Museum, is a very 
dark-coloured small-footed form, being practically uniformly black-brown above and 
below. Hodgson in all probability miscounted the teeth in the molar series, for 
he records them as g; the skull of the type specimen, however, is not in the British 
Museum. The ears of Plecotus auritus in the dry skin are just as he describes them 
in the Himalayan species, “ touching with proximate edges over the forehead, but 
not united.” 
I am indebted to Professor Lorenz for the information that the bat mentioned by 
Fitzinger ^ under the name of Plecotus oethiopicus is not a Plecotus at all, but is in all 
likelihood an example of Nycteris thehaica. 
^ Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xvi. pt. ii. 1847, p. 894. 
2 SB. k. Akad. Wien, liv. i. 1866, p. 546. 
