300 
FALSE-SCORPIONS IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 
C. tetrachelatus (Preyssler). — Recorded by Mr. Pickard- 
Cambridge from Hoddesdon, on the authority of Mr. F. M. 
Campbell. 
XXXIII. 
DAUBENTON’S BAT, MYOTIS DAUBENTONI (KUHL), IN 
HERTFORDSHIRE. 
By Charles Oldham, F.Z.S. 
Read at St. Albans, 14th March, 1911. 
The peculiar habits of Daubenton’s or the Water-bat often 
cause it to be overlooked, and it probably occurs throughout the 
county. It is certainly not uncommon in West Herts, and 
I have watched its unmistakable flight as it coursed to and 
fro like a ghostly sand-martin, just above the surface of the 
water of the Grand Junction Canal at Grove Mill near Watford 
(‘Zoologist,’ 1907, p. 382), the Gade at Waterend near Great 
Gaddesden, and in Cassiobury Park; the Colne at Munden; 
pools at Aldenham Abbey; the village pond at Aldbury; and 
the Grand Junction Canal near Tring Station. 
During the warmer months Daubenton’s bat resorts to hollow 
trees, house-roofs, rock-crevices, and the like, considerable 
numbers often sharing the same den. On leaving these retreats 
at dusk the bats apparently hunt for a short time at a moderate 
elevation, and are then difficult to distinguish from other species, 
but as darkness closes in they settle down to the water. There 
is reason to believe that they spend the time until dawn flying, 
usually in the company of many of their own species, just above 
the surface, in pursuit of their insect prey. Quiet streams and 
tree-shaded ponds and lakes are its favourite haunts, but I have 
seen this bat flying over the incoming tide in a Norfolk estuary. 
In this country it is not active, so far as is known, during 
the winter months. It then retires to caves, old mine-workings, 
and probably house-roofs, where it spends the cold season in 
a state of hibernation. The specimen exhibited was found 
hanging by its toes to the wall of a chalk cavern at Abbot’s 
Langley on 4th February, 1911. During hibernation Daubenton’s 
bat, sometimes at any rate, abjures the social habits that obtain 
in summer, for I have also found it in other parts of England 
hibernating alone. 
Trans. Hertfordshire Nat. Hist. Soc., Vol. XIV, Part 4, July, 1912. 
