At present, I know only two species of bats, the common vespertilio murinus, and the vespertilio auribus.*

Î was much entertained last summer with a tame bat,† which would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave

* Dr. Fleming, in his Description of British Animals, 1828, enumerates seven species included in the genera rhinolophus, or those having membranes upon the nose; vespertilio, including our common bat; and plecotus, those with large ears.-W. J.

There are from twenty to twenty-three varieties of bats found in this country. It is curious that so observant a naturalist as Mr. White should only know of two.-ED.

We are indebted to Mr. George Daniell for the following particulars of the habits of two species of British bats, which were kept by him in confinement. They were originally given to me as a commentary on the statement in the text; but were subsequently communicated, at my request, to the Zoological Society at its meeting on November 11, 1834.

"In July, 1833," Mr. Daniell says, "I received five specimens of the pipistrelle bat from Elvetham, Hants; all of which were pregnant females. There were many more congregated with them in the ruins of the barn in which they were taken; but the rest escaped. They were brought to me in a tin powder canister, in which they had been kept for several days; and on turning them loose into a common packing-case, with a few strips of deal nailed over its front to form a cage, they pleased me much by the great activity which they displayed in the larger space into which they had been introduced; progressing rapidly along the bottom of the box, ascending by the bars to the top, and then throwing themselves off as if endeavouring to fly. I caught some flies and offered one of them to one of the bats, which seized it with the greatest eagerness, and devoured it greedily, and then thrust its nose repeatedly through the bars, with its jaws extended, closing them from time to time, with a snap, and evincing the utmost anxiety to obtain an additional supply of this agreeable food. The flies were then offered to the whole of them, and the same ravenous disposition was displayed; all the bats crowding together at the end of the box at which they were fed, and crawling over, snapping at, and biting each other like so many curs, uttering at the same time a disagreeable grating squeak. I soon found that my pets were so hungry as to require more time to be expended in fly-catching than I was disposed to devote to them; and I then tried to feed them with cooked meat: but this they rejected. Raw beef was, however, eaten with avidity; and an evident preference was given to those pieces which had been moistened with water. The feeding with beef answered exceedingly well, two objects being gained by it: the bats were enabled to feed without assistance. and my curiosity was gratified by observing them catching flies for themselves. "A slice of beef attached to the side of the box in which they were kept not only spared me the trouble of feeding them, but also, by attracting the flies, afforded good sport in observing the animals obtain their own food by this new kind of bat-fowling. The weather being warm, many blue-bottle flies were attracted by the meat; and on one of these approaching within range of the bats' wings, it was sure to be struck down by their action, the

it anything to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manne: <f birds of prey when they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected,

animal itself falling at the same instant with all its membranes expanded. cowering over the devoted fly, with its head thrust under them in order to secure its prey. When the head was again drawn forth, the membranes were immediately closed and the fly was almost invariably taken by the head. The act of deglutition was a laboured operation: the mastication consisting of a succession of eager bites or snaps; and the sucking process, if I may so term it, by which the insect is drawn into the mouth, being greatly assisted by the loose lip of the animal. Several minutes were usually occupied in swallowing a large fly. Those which I offered in the first instance were eaten entire; but I subsequently observed detached wings in the bottom of the box in which the bats were kept; I never, however, observed the rejection of the wings by the bats, and am inclined to think that they are generally swallowed. The olfactory nerves of the pipistrelle are acutely sensible, readily distinguishing between an insect and a bit of beef; for when one of them has been hanging at rest, attached by its hinder extremities to one of the bars in front of its cage, I have frequently placed a small piece of beef within a short distance of its nose, but the beef has always been disregarded; when, on the other hand, I have put a fly in the same situation, the bat instantly commenced snapping after it. They would eat the beef when they were hungry, but they never refused a fly.

"In the day-time they sometimes clustered together in a corner of the cage. Towards evening they became very lively and gave rapid utterance to their harsh, creaking notes. The longest survivor of them died after a captivity of nineteen days.

"My intimate acquaintance with the noctule bat, the species of which Gilbert White appears to have been the first English observer, and for which he indicated the specific name altivolans, commenced on the 16th of May, 1834. I obtained on that day from Hertfordshire five specimens, four of which were pregnant females. The fifth individual, a male, was exceedingly restless and savage from the first; biting the females, and breaking his teeth against the wires of the cage in his attempts to escape from his place of confinement. He rejected all food, and died on the 18th. Up to this time the remaining four had continued sulky; but towards the evening they ate a few small pieces of raw beef, in preference to flies, beetles, or gentles, all of which were offered to them: only one, however, fed kindly. On the 20th, one died; and on the 22nd, two others. The survivor was tried with a variety of food, for I was anxious to preserve her as long as possible; and as she evinced a decided preference for the hearts, livers, &c. of fowls, she was fed constantly upon them. Occasionally I offered to her large flies, but they were always rejected; although one or two May chafers placed within her reach were partially eaten. In taking the food the wings are not thrown forward in the manner of the pipistrelle, as if to surround a victim and prevent its escape ; the action of the noctule in seizing the meat was similar to that of a dog. The appetite was sometimes voracious; the quantity essen exceeding half an

was worthy of observation and pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered; so that the notion, that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no improbable story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quadruped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats, when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I observed, with more dispatch than I was aware of; but in a most ridi culous and grotesque manner.

*

Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the

ounce, although the weight of the animal was no more than ten drachms. It was in the evening that it came down to its food: throughout the day it remained suspended by its hinder extremies at the top of the cage. It lapped the water that drained from its food, and in this, no less than in its manner of feeding, there was a marked distinction between the noctule and the pipistrelle the latter in drinking raises its head. The animal evidently became quite reconciled to her new position. She took considerable pains in cleaning herself, using the claws of the posterior extremities as a comb, parting with them the hair on either side from the head to the tail, and forming a straight line down the middle of the back: the membrane of the wings was cleaned by forcing the nose through the folds, and thereby expanding them.

"On the 23rd of June, a young one was born, exceeding in size a newly born mouse; and having, from its birth, considerable power in its hind legs and claws, by the aid of which it clung strongly to its dam or to the deal sides of the cage. It was nestled so closely within the folds of the membranes as to prevent any observation of the process of suckling. The dam was exceedingly careful of it the next day also, and was observed to shift it from side to side to suckle it, keeping it still folded in the membranes of the wings: on these occasions her usual position was reversed. In the evening she was found to be dead; but the young one was still alive. It took milk from a sponge, and was kept carefully wrapped up in flannel; and by these attentions was preserved for eight days, at the end of which period it died. Its eyes were not then opened, and it had acquired very little hair."

With the preceding notes, Mr. Bennett states that Mr. Daniell communicated to the Zoological Society some other particulars respecting the female noctule, which were published in the Proceedings of that body for 1834. These are less adapted to the general, than to the scientific, reader.

It would seem probable, from the account given in the text of its manner of feeding, that the tame bat observed by our author was the pipistrelle : a bat which he and British zoologists generally, until very recently, confounded with Vespertilio murinus; one of the most common, with one of the rarest of the English species.-E. T. B.

In the West Indies, bats do great mischief in gardens, where they eat the green peas, opening the pod over each pea, and removing it verv dexterously.-ED.