116 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



Where the bats were feeding could not be learned, as 

 they did not remain about the cave at night, and could 

 not be found along Black River, nor at any of the 

 springs in the canyons. They probably went to the 

 Pecos River or Carlsbad, where insect life was more 

 abundant. Those taken on my arrival at the cave were 

 still well supplied with a layer of the winter fat under 

 the skin, but later this had mostly disappeared, showing 

 that food had been scarce since they awoke from the 

 winter's sleep. 



The free-tailed bats are more gregarious than any 

 other species, and perhaps for this reason they occupy 

 only certain caves. None was found in any of the 

 nine other caves of the region entered. However, 

 they undoubtedly occur in some of those that we 

 did not enter where considerable guano has been 

 taken out in past years. 



On the wing these bats are strong, rapid flyers, and 

 will even breast a stiff wind in returning to the cave in 

 the morning, rising and falling to take advantage of 

 the air currents, and often coming down into the cave 

 from high in the air with whistling, shrieking wings as 

 they drop, zigz aging through the air, checking their 

 speed at every turn. In coming out of the cave the 

 rumble of their wings sounds like the muffled roar of 

 a rapid river, interspersed with sharp clicking sounds 

 made by overlapping wing-tips striking together as 

 they crowd through the great doorway and swarm up 

 into the evening air. They are wonderfully skillful at 

 dodging and avoiding objects, and their flight is so 

 swift and crooked that few specimens were obtained 



