MAMMALS our knowledge of the county mammalia, but since that time the subject has been unaccountably neglected. In 1878 Mr. J. Brooking Rowe revised the mammals in Couch's Cornish Fauna for the Royal Institution of Cornwall, but beyond incorporating the results of Cocks and Bullmore, did not add much that was new. The only one of the Penzance naturalists who gave attention to the subject was the late Mr. T. Cornish, who unfortunately published nothing beyond a few notes. Mr. J. C. Tregarthen, in his Wild Life at the Land's End (1903), gives many strong sympathetic word-pictures of the animal life of the district, but in such a work the majority of the mammals are naturally omitted. The last-named naturalist has most kindly supplied the writer with a number of valuable notes on the larger carnivora of the county, and hearty thanks are due to him not simply for his welcome help, but still more for the spirit in which it has been given. CHEIROPTERA 1. Greater Horse-shoe Bat. Rh'mohpbus ferrum-equinum, Schreber. Several previous writers on the mammals of the county speak vaguely of this bat being rare, but beyond Bullmore's statement, on the authority of Cocks, that it has been found in a cave situated between Swanpool and Pennance Head, Falmouth, no details appear to have been published as to the occurrence or capture of a specimen west of the Tamar. Up till a few years ago there was a dilapidated example in the museum of the Royal Institution at Truro marked ' Looe, 1 1 th Sep- tember, 1862,' but its history could not be traced. In May, 1901, one of the Liskeard agricultural students brought in an adult female that had been killed in the neighbourhood a few evenings before. The head and body measured 2-25 in. in length, and the tail 1*35 in. 2. Lesser Horse-shoe bat. Rhinohphus hipposiderut, Bechstcin. This bat is locally common throughout the county. Couch says, ' In the neighbourhood of Trelawny House this species abounds almost to the exclusion of every other.' It has been captured at Launceston, and a specimen was procured on request by C. Upton Tripp at Altarnun. It has been obtained at Lis- keard, near Fowey, is found occasionally around Truro and Falmouth, and has been reported from Penzance, and either this or the preceding species from Newquay. 3. Long-eared Bat. Plecotus auritus, Linn. This bat well deserves its common name, as its flexible ears are nearly as long as its body. It appears to be common and generally distributed throughout the county. 4. Barbastelle. Barbastella barbastellus, Schreber. Bell Barbastellus daubentonil. This species was obtained by Cocks from a cave to the west of Maenporth Bay, and has been reported from the Lizard and from Newquay, but no specimen has been recorded from the county for the last ten years. 5. Serotine. VtspertiKo serotinui, Schreber. Bell Scotophilus serotinus. . One specimen is recorded from Tintagel in Dobson's Catalogue of Cheiroptera in the British Museum, and one was obtained near Newquay in 1902 by Mr. W. Thomas, who says it is not uncommon about Forth. 6. Pipistrelle. Pipistrellus pipistre llus, Schreber. Bell Scotophilui pipistrellus. The flittermouse is decidedly the commonest bat in Cornwall, and appears to be generally distributed all over the county and at Scilly. It has been seen on the wing about Truro in every month of the year. Couch speaking of this bat in Cornwall says, ' It flies at all seasons of the year if the thermometer be not much below 5oF. It awakes in a few hours after the weather has become mild and is not uncommonly seen abroad in the middle of a fine day." 7. Natterer's Bat. Myotis nattereri, Kuhl. Bell VespertiKo nattereri. Two specimens of this bat were obtained by Couch from Looe in September, 1852, and Harting, in the Zoologist for 1889, gives Cornwall as coming into its area of distribution. In the autumn of 1900 a bat 'quite white below" was reported from the Lizard, and two years later a specimen was obtained, which the hairs on the feet and the bristly margin to the interfemoral membrane towards the tip proved to belong to this species. 8. Daubenton's Bat. Myofii daubcntmi, Leisler. Bell VcspertiRo daubentmii. This species was first recorded for the county by Couch in the Zoologist for 1853. Bullmore in his Cornish Fauna gives three instances of its capture in and around Falmouth, and Cocks describes it as not uncommon in that neighbourhood. In 1900 Mr. M. H. Williams sent in a specimen for identifi- cation from Pencalenick near Truro, and bats pro- bably of this species are not infrequently seen flying persistently backward and forward over the surface of the ponds there. It is reported by Thomas from near Lostwithiel, and two years ago an example was killed near Constantine. 9. Whiskered Bat. Myotis mystacintu, Leisler. Bell VespertiKo mystadnus. The only record of the occurrence of this bat in the county is one that was killed near Fowey in the late summer of 1901 by R. O. Waters of Truro. 349
