162
THE SEROTINE BAT IN ESSEX.
Tellina baltica, Linn. Generic name only in the list.
[Mytilus
[Balanus Specimens not forthcoming.]
[Flustra
It is worthy of note that at the British Museum, Natural History
Department, are two species from the Bowerbank Collection labelled
"Near Walton (Mr. Brown)," to wit :—
Planorbis nautileus, Linn. (given as crista), which does not
occur in the above list, and
Paludestrina ventrosa, Mont.
In the British Museum also, is one species from Walton,
presented by John Brown :—
Helix nemoralis, Linn.
Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S.,
Memb. Malac. Soc.
THE SEROTINE BAT (SCOTOPHILUS SEROTINUS,
GMEL.) IN ESSEX.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
NEARLY eleven years ago, I had the pleasure of recording the occurrence of
the Serotine Bat for the first time in this county. (PROCEEDINGS ESSEX
Field Club, Vol. iv., p. iv.) Since that time the species has not, until now,
been again met with in Essex, and the record still stands as the most northerly
occurrence of the animal in Britain. I am glad, therefore, to be able to add
that, about one a.m. on the 25th of August last, a fine male specimen entered my
bedroom at the "Pryors," Bloomfield, by the window, which stood open to the
extent of two inches at the top. I made every effort to secure it, as I saw that it
was one of the less common species, but it was more than half an hour before I
succeeded, and then only by the novel expedient of standing on a chair in the
middle of the room and whirling a large bath-towel round my head, so that the
bat had only the corners of the room to fly in, and was soon knocked down. It
proved an unusually large specimen. Its total length (tip of nose to end of tail)
is 51/4 inches ; weight 5/8 oz. ; and expanse of wing 14 inches, thus rivalling the
ordinary dimensions of the Noctule, which is usually the larger of the two. In
colour, too, it varied considerably from the description usually given of the
Serotine. Nowhere was there any appearance of the "deep chestnut brown"
which both Bell ("British Quadrupeds,'' p. 46) and Harting ("Zoologist," 1891,
p. 102) speak of as usually distinguishing the species. The back was of a dark
blackish-brown, but the fur was tipped with yellowish-grey, thus giving much the
same "frosty" appearance as the silvery-grey tips of the fur on the back of the
Barbastelle The under parts were of a smoky-grey. I have deposited the
specimen in the Club's museum at Chelmsford.