MAMMALS 5. Natterer's Bat. Myolit nattereri, Kuhl. Bell fespertiKo nattereri. Locally, Reddish-grey Bat. Rare. I was first enabled to add this species, which is rather rare in Britain, from having determined a specimen which I saw in the possession of the late Rev. A. Matthews, who informed me that it was caught in his house at Gumley many years ago he could not recall the exact date. Since then, Clarke, the sexton at Aylestone Church, brought me a specimen which he found dead in the church on 3 1 July, 1887, and which was the first ever acquired by the Leicester Museum. Being quite sure there were more of them in the church, I purchased a 'bat-fowling' net, and went there on the evening of 12 August, 1887. There were numbers of bats flying inside and outside of the church ; but choosing the inside, I stationed myself by one of the windows of the chancel, between which and a stove-pipe the bats were flitting. After two hours' work and several misses, I managed to catch three pipistrelles and one natterer's bat. The flight of the two species varied much, the pipistrelles flying quicker, and constantly changing the direction of their flight, in a zig-zag kind of manner, whereas the flight of the natterer's bat was more fully sustained and much more direct, though somewhat slower. The specimen, which was a male, was very amiable in captivity, and we fed it two or three times with pieces of raw meat soaked in water, which it greedily seized when hungry, making, however, very little progress, a small piece the size of a barleycorn lasting it a quarter of an hour. Cold weather supervening, it finally died after nine days. I purchased another alive from Clarke, the sexton, on 20 July, 1889, caught at Aylestone Church, and one, also from Aylestone, on 8 August, 1889 both males. 6. Daubenton's Bat. Myotis daubentml, Leisler. Bell Vespertine Jaubentonii. Rare. An adult female of this species was brought to me, whilst still alive, on 19 June, 1885, having been shot with a catapult on the evening of the 1 7th whilst flying over water at Aylestone, by Mr. George Snoad, who kindly presented it to the museum. 7. Whiskered Bat. Myotis mystacinus, Leisler. Bell VespertlRo mystacinus. After considerable search, extending over many years, aided also by a large number of observers, and getting a great many pipistrelles, this rare little bat has been found in the county, through the exertions of Mr. G. Kirby, of Lubenham Lodge, who kindly forwarded to the Leicester Museum a young male speci- men, taken in his garden on 17 September, 1888. The writer received another (a female) from Mr. Ernest Neale, caught on Manor Road, West Leigh, Leicester, on 24 April, 1889. A male specimen, caught in the drawing-room at Broughton Astley rectory on 19 July, 1889, was sent to me the follow- ing day, dead, by the Rev. G. D. Armitage, who sent me another, also a male, on 24 July, from the same place. INSECTIVORA 8. Hedgehog. Erinaceus europaeus, Linn. Resident and generally distributed. I have received several from Knighton, close to the town of Leicester, where it breeds. On 13 September, 1883, an old female hedgehog and four young ones were brought to me from there. Another, caught also at Knighton, we endeavoured to keep. It remained for some time in the workroom at the Leicester Museum, hiding itself during the day under the box of a step leading from one room into another. It, however, refused all food, though apparently very hungry, and soon died. 9. Mole. Talpa europaea, Linn. Resident and common, though seldom seen above ground. Harley wrote : ' Buff and white, or parti- coloured individuals occasionally occur,' although a mole-catcher of more than fifty years' experience once told him that he had never met with any such varieties. One in the Leicester Museum is labelled 'From Belvoir. Mr. Jno. Ryder.' This specimen I find noted in the old MS. donation-book as being pre- sented on 25 April, 1862. It is of a uniform cream- colour, inclining to ferruginous on the limbs. The late Rev. A. Matthews, of Gumley, showed me one precisely similar, caught by a mole-catcher in an adjoin- ing parish during the first week of June, 1884, the man stating at the time that he had met with several other examples during the course of his trapping. 1 Zoo/. (1884), p. 271. Curiously enough, Mr. Matthews procured another on 20 March, 1885, which had been caught in a trap at Laughton Hills. He described it as being the handsomest he ever saw, a large male of an amber colour, with the nose white nearly to the eyes, cheeks and back of the head and neck bright orange. Mr. Ingram sent one to the museum, caught in Barkcstone Wood, Belvoir, on 10 June, 1887, and precisely similar to the one sent from the same locality twenty- five years previously. I saw in the hands of Pinchen, the taxidermist, a similar variety, taken at Anstey in December, 1887; and Mr. John Burgess, of Sad- dington, presented to the museum a very fine one which was caught there on 10 March, 1888. This specimen was also like the others, but rather more reddish-orange on its ventral aspect ; again, on 12 December, 1890, he presented another, a male, from the same place, and a third in 1893, both precisely similar. It would thus appear that there is a constant variety of the mole in which part of the head and the joints of the limbs are ferruginous, and the remainder of the body cream-coloured. Mr. H. B. Oldham, of Saxby, presented to the museum a female variety caught by a mole-catcher at Saxby, amongst a number of normal specimens, on 8 February, 1890. The upper su Ace was of a warm, silver-grey, owing to the tips of thF hairs being that colour. The front of the head was of a greyish rufous; chin and throat bright golden rufous, this colour ex- tending to the manus. A light rufous line ran along the abdominal region, broadening out about the centre 159
