l80 WALTER LOUIS HAHN. 



goes at once to the spot where food is given. At other times 

 when it should be about as hungry, it sits quietly on the floor for 

 five minutes or longer and then goes without error or hesitation 

 for the food. Even when it wanders about the cage instead of going 

 directly to the feeding place, it cannot be asserted that the animal 

 has forgotten where it must go for food ; the impulse to explore 

 the cage may be stronger than the hunger impulse. 



The erratic behavior of bats makes it impossible to tabulate the 

 results or to plot a curve of the time of response that will give 

 a correct idea of the behavior of the animal. For this reason 

 the record of the observations for one bat will first be given in 

 considerable detail, and the conclusions will be stated afterward. 



This bat, a female Myotis subulatus, recorded as No. 2 in my 

 experiments, was obtained in Shawnee Cave at Mitchell on De- 

 cember 8, 1907. It was kept in a small cage with other bats in 

 the dark room and was occasionally taken out and fed meal 

 worms and allowed to fly about the laboratory. It could always 

 be easily aroused from its dormant state and was unusually alert 

 and active. 



In the following records it is to be understood, unless other- 

 wise stated, that the time recorded is that from the instant the 

 animal was released in the middle of the cage until it touched 

 the cloth. 



This bat was first placed in the experimental cage on February 

 7, at 2 : 06 p. m. (i) It ran and flew about in all parts of the 

 cage and in three minutes reached the cloth and took it in its 

 teeth, probably mistaking it for food because it moved when 

 touched. (2) Was fed and remained quiet for a time, then left 

 and came back and was fed at 2 : 27. (3) Put on bottom of cage 

 and came back in i i^ minutes but left before it could be fed. (4) 

 Back and fed 3 minutes later. Crawled away and became quiet 

 and was taken out. 



Was not put in again till February 10, at 3 : 39. First time came 

 to cloth in 6 minutes ; second time in lyi; third in i ; fourth in 2 ; 

 fifth in 70 seconds ; then in 40 seconds. Experiment terminated. 



It is evident that the association had been definitely formed at 

 this time or after a total of ten trials, the first four of which 

 occurred three days earlier than the last six. 



