MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 207 



do not know which name will stand a-; yet.)] '• Snuffer or Puffing 

 Pig (Phoccena americand). This is the smallest of all the species. 

 It is very common here at all season-, and is occasionally caught in 

 nets set for mackerel or blue-fish." There are several skeletons in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



VESPERTILIONID.ffi. 



37. Lasiurus noveboracensis Gray. ( Vespertilio novebora- 

 censis Erxl.) Red Bat. New York Eat. Common; in some 

 sections of the State the most numerous species of the family. 



This species varies greatly in color, but the difference seems to be 

 chiefly sexual. The adult males are generally much lighter than the 

 females. In the young the sexual variation in color seems to be often 

 much less marked. 



The only well-marked distinguishing characteristics between this species 

 and the next, except in more highly colored specimens of the latter, is gen- 

 erally the black border to the ear, and the black on the lips in L. cinereus. 

 In each there are the same bands of color on the hairs, distributed in the 

 same way, — dusky, verging to black at the base, then pale yellowish 

 brown, succeeded by darker or brighter bands of red, and tipped with 

 whitish. In some specimens the terminal band of whitish is quite absent, 

 particularly on the anterior part of the body, the subterminal bright red 

 zone being thus continuous to the tips of the hairs. In other specimens 

 the terminal band of white is developed to a great degree, so as to very 

 much obscure the red or dark chocolate zone beneath. Such specimens 

 often strongly approximate to what is called L. cinereus (V. pruinosus 

 Say), where the terminal white zone reaches its maximum of development, 

 and the subterminal russet zone its greatest intensity. I feel, in fact, far 

 from sure that the species are distinct. In a series of about twenty Massa- 

 chusetts skins, nearly all marked for sex by the collector (Mr. C. J. May- 

 nard), all the males are of a beautiful light, bright, yellowish red, with 

 scarcely a trace of the apical white ; the females, though somewhat more 

 variable, are universally darker, the light red of the males being replaced 

 in these by dark russet, which is more or less obscured by the whitish tips 

 of the fur. The alcoholic series, so far as carefully examined in reference 

 to this point, indicates this sexual difference to be quite constant ; but 

 there are occasional exceptions. 



Very little seems to be known respecting the time of copulation or the 



