when at large, capture most, if not all, of their food during flight—I have known a captive Long-eared Bat to remain on the wing for over an hour at one time—and it seems in the highest degree probable that they habitually use this method to secure insects which are large and vigorous, and therefore difficult to manage, without being compelled to alight.
One species at any rate has actually been observed to use the interfemoral membrane as a pouch when on the wing. My friend Mr. J.R.B. Masefield writes, under date March 1st, 1899:—"I have no doubt whatever that the Long-eared Bat makes use of the interfemoral pouch in the way you mention. I have been close to them when picking moths off sallows, and the Bat always hovers when taking off the moth, and bends up the tail so as to form a receptacle for the insect as it drops. As you know, the sallow-feeding Noctuæ (Tæniocampa gothica, stabilis, instabilis, cruda, &c.) all drop immediately the flower or bush is touched or shaken, and thus the head of the Bat and the interfemoral pouch form a trap from which the moth cannot escape. When feeding in captivity I have often seen this Bat, as soon as it had seized a moth, sit, as it were, on its tail and double up its head in the way you describe. The Long-eared Bat does not always succeed in holding a large moth at the first snap, and this is an additional argument in favour of your theory." A Long-eared Bat which I found in the old copper-mines on Alderley Edge, and kept for some days in February last, used always to thrust moths (Scotosia dubitata and Gonoptera libatrix) into its pouch, but only treated mealworms in this manner when they struggled violently, seizing and eating them at other times quite openly.
In July and August I caught several examples of Daubenton's Bat (Myotis daubentoni) as they emerged from a hole beneath the eaves of a house near Redes Mere, Cheshire. They seized and ate mealworms quite openly, but always thrust moths into the interfemoral pouch. Small thin-bodied moths (Cidaria populata) were thrust in and withdrawn again almost immediately; a larger species (Urapteryx sambucata) was obviously more difficult to manage, whilst vigorous thick-bodied species (Xylophasia polyodon, Triphæna pronuba, and Mamestra brassiccæ) occasioned many struggles, and were not firmly secured until they had been held in the pouch for some seconds. Once, one of the Bats, having seized a
