MAMMALS OF THE REGION 117 



with the shotgun. With nets on long poles it was an 

 easy matter to sweep them in from the air as they 

 crowded out of the cave doorway in the evening, and 

 we thus obtained all that were needed for examination 

 and study. 



It was interesting to note their methods of progress 

 in captivity. They would climb rapidly up a cloth or 

 wire mesh, reaching up with long hooked arms, and 

 drawing up the body first on one side and then on the 

 other, and then turning around would hang themselves 

 up by the hooked claws of the hind feet to rest or sleep. 

 On the ground or rocks they would run rapidly on all 

 fours, crawling into dark corners to hide, or launching 

 off on spread wings from the edge of a rock or even from 

 the ground. 



These bats have few enemies, and the fact that they 

 produce but one young a year would indicate either 

 long life or unusual immunity from accidents. Where 

 massed together as they are in this cave, however, they 

 are captured and eaten to some extent by the big cave- 

 dwelling owls, the ring-tails, and quite probably by 

 other predatory animals, such as foxes, coyotes, and 

 bobcats. Jim White told me that one year when his 

 old cat had kittens she would go to the cave shaft in the 

 evening and catch the bats as they came near the edge 

 or fell to the ground and carry them to her kittens to 

 be eaten. When the bats were most numerous, he has 

 seen her with two in her mouth and a foot on each of 

 two others looking around to see what to do next. 



Bat bones are abundant in places back in the farthest 

 recesses of the cave, generally, with a little old guano 



