Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

The Annals
of
Scottish
Natural History
No. 35] 1900 [JULY
NOTES ON THE LAND MAMMALS OF THE
MORAY FIRTH AREA.
By WILLIAM
TAYLOR.
SINCE the publication of Messrs. Harvie- Brown and
Buckley's "Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin" in 1895,
I do not know of a single species having been added to the
fauna, though exact localities for less common species have
been noted.
CHIROPTERA.
The COMMON BAT ( Vesperugo pipistrellus]
is still abundant
and widely distributed. It varies in colour, for I
sometimes find specimens rather light brown, and rarely
nearly black. Though they infest houses less than they
did thirty or forty years ago, they can often be found in
clefts of rocks in wooded districts. DAUBENTON'S BAT
( Vespertillio daubentoni) and the LONG-EARED BAT (Plecotus
auritus] are both occasionally found. I have seen but few
examples of them, and therefore cannot say whether they
vary in colour in this part of Scotland. I think one or two
more species of Bats may yet be found here. They should
be searched for along the rocky banks of rivers falling into
the Moray Firth, and sent for identification when the finder
has any doubt about them.
35 B