136 THE BATS OF EPPING FOREST.
at this unceremonious treatment, but, after taking a few rounds, flew
off to some more secure place of rest.
It is rather curious that all the Noctules found in one tree are of
one sex, all males or all females, and, on more than one occasion,
on finding one of these congregations of females, every bat has had
a baby-bat in her arms. Noctules have only one young one at a
time, and they always carry it until able to shift for itself. The baby-
bats hang on to their mother in front.
2. Scotophilus Pipistrellus. The Pipistrelle or Common
Eat.
The Pipistrelli is the smallest and commonest of our bats, and
differs from the others in two points—first, it does not seem to
require a season of torpidity, flying during every month in the year,
although more commonly in summer ; and secondly, it is very fre-
quently seen flying by day, even in the brightest and hottest sun-
shine. Like the martins and swallows it feeds on all manner of
flying insects ; and as two of a trade never can agree, it is teased and
tormented, and mobbed whenever the swallows and martins catch it
in the act of poaching on their hunting grounds, for they evidently
regard this as a decided encroachment on their manorial rights, and
therefore consider it a duty to keep on stabbing him with their little
beaks until they force him to beat a retreat from the realms of air,
and take refuge nearer earth.
3. Vespertilio Nattereri. Natterer's Bat, or the Reddish-
Grey Bat.
Natterer's Bat is not uncommon in the Forest, but has not been
found in hollow trees. It frequents old buildings by day, and uses
the Forest only as a hunting-ground. Workmen repairing old houses
that have long been tenantless now and then find a Natterer's Bat
hanging from the underside of the tiles, and are quite at a loss to
conjecture how it came there ; and yet it is not difficult to believe
that a bat might easily squeeze its body through a very small aperture.
Mr. Doubleday, the great Epping Naturalist, calls my attention to
the colour of this bat, which is much paler than that of any other
British species. It is pale yellowish brown on the back, and silvery
white on the belly ; the wing membranes are also very pale. We
may be pretty sure that it feeds on high-flying moths, as Mr. Double-
day on one occasion took a specimen in his insect-net when mothing.