List of the Fauna of the County. 159
Cheiroptera. Vespertilionidae .
Scotophilus noctula. The Great Bat.—This Bat, the
largest of the British Cheiroptera, occurs here commonly.
It is said to have a shorter period of activity than most of
the order, but my experience is, that it comes out of its
winter haunts in March if the season is favourable, and
continues on the wing until late in October; it is to be seen
flying over the river and this town, and in fact all through
the valley of the Colne, in abundance, until quite the end
of the month, in suitable seasons. The latest period at
which I have obtained a specimen was on the 10th of
November. I never find any other species hybernating
with it; hollow trees appear to be its favourite resting-places,
but I know a few spots where it may always be found resting
between chimneys and the walls of houses. I think it is
one of our most beautiful bats, the rich brown fur, smoother
and finer than velvet, contrasting well with the black wings.
In flight it is like the swift, rapid and high, and it well
merits Gilbert White's name altivolans.3
Scotophilus pipistrellus. The Common Bat.—This Bat,
a small edition of the noctule, is here, as elsewhere, the
Robert F. Tomes, and Edward R. Alston. London, 1874. In the original
manuscript Mr. Laver had prefixed short specific diagnoses to his
remarks upon each species, but the Editor has expunged these as being
unnecessary : the generic and specific characters are admirably given in
Bell's work, which should, of course, be in the hands of all students of
our native Mammalia. A considerable amount of information on the
habits and food of some of our mammals will be found in Mr. Harting's
paper on "Forest Animals," 'Transactions,' i. 74.—Ed.]
3 [See 'Natural History of Selborne,' Letters XXII., XXVI., and
XXXVI. Sir William Jardine remarks :—'' The British fauna is indebted
to White for the first notice of this species ; it is locally distributed, and
although not common generally is found in numbers together, so many
as 185 having been taken in one night from the eaves of Queen's College,
Cambridge. It was first described by Daubenton under the name of
'La-noctula,' which name Latinised was afterwards continued, and is
prior to White's name of Vespertilio altivolans, which we regret has not
been retained, as it is so characteristic of the habits of the species."
—Ed.]