Animal life of the British Isles : $b a pocket guide to the mammals, reptiles and batrachians of wayside and woodlandStep, Edward
History
Animal life of the British Isles : $b a pocket guide to the mammals, reptiles and batrachians of wayside and woodland
Step, Edward
Animals -- Great Britain
The Bats were known generically in Anglo-Saxon times as Flittermouse and
Reremouse, and these names may be met with still in certain localities;
but to the general public the Bat is still a Bat without distinction
of species. Although there are twelve distinct kinds that breed in the
British Isles, for each of which the naturalist has had to invent an
English as well as an international name, not one of these has got into
ordinary use; so that it is impossible to get any precise information
from those whose occupation gives them opportunities for observation.
*Larger Horse-shoe Bat* (_Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum_, Schreber).
We have two Horse-shoe Bats, distinguished as Larger and Lesser,
and they are regarded as the lowest organised of our Bats. Their
distinguishing feature as a genus is the absence of the tragus from
the ear, and the presence of a leaf-like outgrowth of naked skin on
the muzzle around the nostrils. The broad forepart of this forms the
horse-shoe, a protruding central portion behind the nostrils is known
as the sella, and behind it an erect tapering portion is the lancet.
There can be little doubt that this extraordinary expansion is no mere
ornament, but a sense organ which enables these Bats to execute their
marvellous flight through narrow passages. They are able even to
distinguish invisible obstacles like glass, and they fly low down
among bushes and herbage where they are far more likely to collide
than in the upper air. In these respects their motions are different
from those of the other Bats.
The Larger Horse-shoe Bat is a large and rather heavily built Bat whose
proportions are only slightly exceeded by the Noctule (page 46), our
largest species. The combined length of head and body is about two and
a half inches, and of the tail an inch and a quarter. The forearm is two
inches or more, and the expansion of the wings covers more than thirteen
inches. The large ears are about half an inch broad, narrowing abruptly
to the sharp recurved tip; when laid forward over the face they reach
slightly beyond the tip of the muzzle. The lower portion of the broad
wing membrane is attached to the ankle and the tail almost to the tip
of the latter. The colour of the fur above is reddish-grey; on the
underside pale grey. Its cry is a sparrow-like chirp.
[Illustration: _Pl. 18._ _D 34._
*Whiskered Bat.*
Asleep on roof timbers.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 19._ _D 35._
*Red-grey Bat.*
Myotis nattereri.]
The mouth has a straight broad opening below the swollen muzzle with
its stiff moustache. The large canine teeth are very conspicuous in
contrast with the small incisors. The dental formula for this and the
next species is: _i 1/2, c 1/1, p 2/3, m 3/3 = 32_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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