66 Allen — Notes on Bahama Bats. 



cases wc were informed that certain caves had ])een inhalnted 

 hy hats for a great many years, indicating that they appreciate 

 sucli places as are snited to their needs. ( )n the island of New- 

 Providence, however, we made a journey into the interior to 

 examine some caves on the large estate of Mr. (iladstone, Pri- 

 vate Secretary of the Governor. This gentleman assured us 

 tliat in jNIarch these caves were inhabited by numerous bats, and 

 that he had visited them at that time with a party. But when 

 we arrived, some four months later, not a l)at could we find after 

 careful search among the narroAV passages leading back inti) tin' 

 hill. Apparently no l»ats had been in the cave for some time, 

 and we wondered if possibly it were inhalnted at certain seasons 

 oidy, by species that had migrated thither from elsewhere. 



Six species of bats were collected by the members of our party. 

 Although none of these are new, yet it is believed that the 

 notes on their habits and distriliution here offered may prove 

 of value. 



The l)at fauna of the Bahamas is made up of elements some- 

 what similar in character to those composing the avifauna. 

 Thus, the brown bat {VcspeiiUio fuscus hahamensis) is a repre- 

 sentative of a North American species of wide distribution on 

 the continent. The red Imt (Lasiurus horealls semiiiohis) is also 

 a representative of a wide-ranging North American species. On 

 the other hand, there are species representing genera whose dis- 

 tribution is mainly the ^^\-st Indies and the tropical and sub- 

 tropical portions of the mainland. Such are the house l)at (Xi/r- 

 tiitoinas bahamc lists), the big-eared bat iOtopteru^ iratrrhousii 

 rompressus) , and the straw-colored bat {ChUonatalus tiriDidifroiis). 

 A fourth species belonging to this second class is Glossophaga 

 soricina antillaruiii, a skull of which has been recorded by Mr. 

 J. A. G. Rehn from the Bahamas. A third class is represented 

 by Phj/llniii/rteris plai) if n )}!■•<, which belongs to a genus appa- 

 rently confined to the West Indies. 



I wish to express my thanks to the authorities of the United 

 States National Museum for the loan of specimens for compari- 

 son. All the bats collected by our expedition have been pre- 

 sented to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, 

 Mass. 



Following is a list of the six species obtained by our party, 

 with notes : 



