NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS P I G M Y S H R E W (Sorex minutus). In Feb., 1959, I caught a pigmy shrew in an apple störe above my garage. S. PILKINGTON, Earl Soham. LESSER
HORSE
SHOE
BAT ( R h i n o l o p h u s hipposideros)
NEW
to
Suffolk. A lesser Horse shoe bat was found in a cave in the chalk in Bury St. E d m u n d s on 18th December, 1958. T h e bat was ringed and found again ön January 9th, January 3Ist and March 14th, 1959. T h e only previous records for East Anglia are Girton, Cambridgeshire, 1887 and Happisburgh, Norfolk, 1914.
R.
STEBBINGS.
BATS IN W O M E N ' S H A I R . It is often said that bats are in some way attracted by women's hair and that once in contact they become inextricably entangled, the two victims having to be separated by scissors wielded by a man. Reports of such occurrences are much like those of the Indian Rope Trick : one's informant knows somebody, who knows somebody eise, who had a friend—etc., etc., but the story of bats in the hair is so widespread that the gift of Noctule (Nyctalus noctulä) by Mr. D . Jones of Higham and of three smaller bats, Long-eared (Plecotus auritus) Natterer's ( M y o t i s nattereri)' and Daubenton's (M. daubentoni) by M r . R. Stebbings of Bury St. E d m u n d s seemed to offer sufficient material for experiment. Of women only two young 18 year old blondes were available, one with relatively short curly hair, the other with longer wavy hair done u p behind in a b u n : it does not seem likely that there would have been any different result with older women or with brünettes. In the case of the smaller bats each was placed in t u r n u p o n thevolunteer's head, each walked about without becoming entangled in any way and finally took flight without any difficulty. T h e experiment was repeated several times with the same results. None of the small bats had been for long in captivity, all were still a little nervous when handled and apt to bite and therefore likely to " panic " — if bats do panic—when placed u p o n a hairy and unaccustomed substratum. T h e noctule on the other hand had been in captivity for some months and was very tarne, hurrying towards a hand placed in its cage and crying like a puppy for food. It had been found lying injured on a road in mid-winter and had never attempted to fly when in captivity and seemed to have arthritic swellings in one knee joint and one wrist. A freshly caught Noctule does seem liable to panic in a house (Trans. S.N.S. Vol. I X p. 369) and the experiment should obviously be repeated with such an animal. In the case under review the tarne noctule walked about on the volunteers' heads with no apparent difficulty. I should like to be able to record the names of these two martyrs to science but they prefer to remain anonymous. CRANBROOK.