Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/254

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK nets off the Suffolk coast, which have never been seen or identified by a naturalist. Where animals of this order are caught at sea, more or less opposite to the boundary line between two counties, as for instance off Yarmouth,' it is by no means easy to decide to which county they should be assigned, nor is it perhaps a matter of much consequence. Some of the specimens enumerated by Mr. Patterson in his Mammalia of Great Yarmouth, which are not mentioned here, may have been captured off the Suffolk coast. Except in the case of a few occurrences taken from the above mentioned valuable list, the writer is indebted for the short account of Suffolk cetaceans given below to Mr. T. Southwell, F.Z.S. The writer's sincere thanks are especially due to Mr. T, Southwell, Dr. Laver and the Rev. J. G. Tuck for much valuable advice, and for the great amount of assistance which they have spared neither time nor trouble to afford. He is also greatly indebted to Mr. F. Norgate, Mr. W. M. Crowfoot, Mr. H. Miller, the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, Mr. W. G. Clarke, Mr. H. Lingwood, Mr. W. H.Tuck, Mr. H. C. Hudson and many others, too numerous to mention separately, for the trouble they have taken in procuring information on the mammals, reptiles and batrachians of this county. CHEIROPTERA J. Long-eared Bat. Plecotus auritus, Linn. and were feeding apparently on small moths. With the exception of the pipistrelle, and and possibly also on caterpillars, for they cer- in some districts perhaps of the noctule, this tainly took food of some sort at times from appears to be the commonest Suffolk bat, and the leaves. This is one among several species it is certainly one of the prettiest. By day of bats observed in the Stour valley by Mr. it hides in hollow trees, nooks and crannies in H. Laver of Colchester, old buildings, and similar retreats. The writer has observed it in a cellar at Blaxhall. 2. Barbastelle. BarbaiUlla harbaiUUus, Schre- Messrs. C. J. and James Paget {Sketch of the "^ 'Nat. Hist, of Yarmouth and its Neighbourhood, ^tW—Barbastellm daubentonii. published in 1834) refer to this species as Professor Alfred Newton [Zoologist, 1857, 'common in old houses in and about the town.' p. 5420) records the occurrence of this bat in In the neighbourhood of Thetford, on the Suffolk. Mr. Southwell, in an article on the Norfolk boundary, Mr. W. G. Clarke con- Mammalia and Reptilia of Norfolk,' referring siders it to be rare. Mr. Hudson, taxider- to the barbastelle, says : ' Mr. Crowfoot found mist, Ipswich, lately informed me that in one on a wall at Ellingham ' (on the Norfolk taking down an elm tree at Holy Wells, on side of the river Wavcney), ' on 2 November the outskirts of that town, a very large 1870, and believes this species to be common number of long-eared bats were found in the in the neighbourhood of Beccles.' In a letter cavity of a large rotten branch. The man to the writer, Mr. Crowfoot mentions a who found them remarked that when he put specimen he took some years ago from a tree his hand and arm into the hole, the place in Worlingham Park. About the year 1900 felt quite warm. On the evening of 7 June a bat, believed to have been of this species, 1888 several-small bats, believed to have been was taken by the writer from a hole, rather of this species, were noticed by the writer low down, in the trunk of a large and very about some oaks at the edge of Iken Wood, old cherry tree in a garden at Little Glem- They were threading their way amongst the ham ; but before a careful examination could branches with great ease and dexterity, never be made, it freed itself by a sudden effort, and es- appearing to touch a twig with their wings ; caped. The dark colour of the fur (nearly black • Southtown, a part of Great Yarmouth, is in Suffolk.

  • Read before the Norfolk and Norwich Nat. See. and printed in their Transactions, i. (1870-1), 7'*

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