Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/343

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315

NOTES AND QUERIES.


MAMMALIA.

CHIROPTERA.

The Whiskered Bat in Oxfordshire.—A Whiskered Bat (Vespertilio mystacinus) flew into one of the rooms here on the night of July 19th last. For several nights numbers of moths had been flying into the room, attracted by the lamp, and numbers of others were continually fluttering about outside. On several occasions I noticed two or three Bats flying backwards and forwards just outside the window, apparently in pursuit of the moths. Probably the Whiskered Bat was one of them. This Bat has been recorded from Godstow, near Oxford, but I had not previously met with it in the north of the county. Mr. Oldfield Thomas kindly confirmed my identification of the specimen. — O.V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon).

Bats carrying their Young.—On Sunday afternoon, the 7th July, a young Bat fell out of its home above our hall-door porch, and lay on the steps until evening. I placed it in a cardboard-box beside me, where it remained feebly squeaking as I sat with three other members of our family at dusk, when the elder Bats began to come out. They soon discerned the lost young one, and six or eight of them flew round and round us so closely that I turned it out on the gravel-walk about a yard from where I sat, when they continued to hover round it very closely. Anxious to witness its removal if possible, I placed it a little farther from us, and after more indecision one of the Bats alighted on the ground, and spread itself over the young one. I then covered it with a butterfly-net, and afterwards with a glass case, but, finding it did not move, I examined it without any covering for some minutes. Thinking it could not carry but intended to stay with the young one, I gently touched it, when it flew with its treasure into the shelter of a neighbouring group of trees.—R.M. Skipworth (Owmby Mount, Searby, Lincoln).

AVES.

Lesser Redpoll nesting in Sussex.—On May 4th, 1901, a nest of the Lesser Redpoll (Linota rufescens) was found by Mr. Arthur Byatt, of Midhurst, Sussex, in a small fir-tree, about fifty or sixty yards