IQO MAMMALIA. 



species is shown by the fact that of seventy specimens procured 

 here, sixty-three were of this species, six were the little brown bat 

 ( V. subulatus), and amongst them all there was only a single red bat 

 (Atalapha Noveboracensis}. 



The dissociation of the sexes is sometimes most remarkable. 

 Out of eighty-five adult specimens killed in Lewis County during 

 the past summer (1883) there was but a single male. Two other 

 males were killed in the early autumn. Of thirty-two young killed 

 during the same period there were nineteen males and thirteen 

 females, showing that the disproportion does not exist at birth. I 

 am at a complete loss to explain this enormous preponderance of 

 females among the adults. At first, I was inclined to think that 

 the sexes separated during the period of bringing forth and car- 

 ing for the young, but, although we visited a number of different 

 localities, we were never able to find the males. Thinking that 



o 



they might not fly until early morning, I several times went out 

 before daylight, but females only were killed. 



Mr. Frank Hough tells me that when looking for young crows, 

 some years ago, in the deep ravine that runs through the village 

 of Lowville, in Lewis County, he espied a crow's nest in a large 

 and densely-foliaged hemlock. On climbing the tree he found the 

 nest to be an old one, and commenced tearing it in pieces, when, 

 to his astonishment, he discovered thirteen young bats embedded 

 in the sticks and litter of which it was composed. These bats 

 were taken home and shown to several members of the family. 

 Their eyes were not yet open. They were, of course, the progeny 

 of a number of females, and presumably were of the species now 

 under consideration, because it is by far the most common in the 

 region. The young, generally two in number, are born about the 

 first of July, and commence to fly when three weeks old.* Those 



* Females killed during the latter part of June were heavy with young, but up to July 1st not 

 one had given birth to its offspring. All that were killed after July 4th had already been in labor 

 and were then suckling their young. Of three females shot June 3oth, 1883, one contained but a 

 single embryo, and the others, two each. All were nearly ready for extrusion and would doubtless 



