Vol. XVIII, pp. 65-72 February 21, 1905 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTEy ON BAHAMA BATS. 

 BY GLOVER M. ALLEN. 





Tins is the second of a series of short papers hased on mate- 

 rial collected mainly dnring July , 1 00 4 , amcjng the Bahamas . The 

 writer, in company with Mr. Thomas Barbour and Mr. Owen 

 Bryant, spent some ten days on the island of New Providence, 

 and about three weeks among the northern islands of the 

 Bahama group. Everywhere, inquiries were made that might 

 lead to the discovery of bat colonies, l)ut although many caves 

 were visited which we were assiu'cd contained bats, onl}^ a few of 

 these w^ere found to be inhabited by them. The limestone rock 

 of tlie Bahamas is quite suitable for cave formation. At 

 several places, notably Hurricane Hole, Great Abaco, and Cedar 

 Harbor, Little Abaco, there were series of rather open caverns 

 in bluffs by the shore. These caverns varied in height from two 

 or three feet to ten feet or moi-e, often with ctirious cylindrical 

 pits ill tlicir roofs. Others, again, w^'re hollow^s in the ground 

 of a more well-like nature, and sometimes led off at an angle 

 from the op.Miing. But not t-xcvy cave is suitable as a resting- 

 place for bats. In our experience a prime necessity of a bat 

 cave is tliat it shall have a chamber sufficiently far from the 

 entrance, or so situated past a turn, as to exclude all daylight. 

 Apparentlj' it is of less importance whether the entrance be in 

 the side of a hill or burrows-like from a level surface. In several 

 10— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XVII, 1905. (65) 



