118 BULLETIN 43, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



named for it in the Monograpli of 1864 was Lake Winnipeg, British 

 America. J. J. Allen reports it from British Columbia. According to 

 J. B. Tyrrell (Mammals of Canada, Toronto, 1888), A.fuscus has been 

 collected in Ottawa City and Lake Winnipeg. Mexican and Antillean 

 forms when compared with the more northern examples are found to 

 be of the same species. It has been secured from all parts of the United 

 States, but I am unable to give any rate of its distribution. 



C. F. Maynard (Mammals of Florida, /. c.) found it frequently in the 

 northern sections of Florida, but more abundantly in the vicinity of 

 settlements than elsewhere. "I once captured," he states, "a female 

 of this species which was heavy with young. I placed her in a cage 

 and left her. After an absence of an hour or so I returned and found 

 that she had escaped, but had left a young one clinging to the woodwork 

 on the side. The little thing was entirely naked, but was furnished 

 with teeth, which it showed when handled, and endeavored to bite, 

 squeaking after the manner of all these animals. I replaced it in a 

 cage, where it remained until night, but in the morning it was gone, 

 and I supposed that its mother had carried it away." 



The brown bat when at rest is not often found hanging by its thumbs 

 or feet. As a rule, it rests with folded wings flat upon a rough wall or 

 inside of a hollow tree, with its head directed downward. The follow- 

 ing note is taken from a study of the living animal in captivity: 



The tail is arched beyond the second caudal vertebra: the fleshy tip 

 is apparently tactile, and kept close to the plane on which the animal 

 reposes. The toes are widely abducted (see PI. xvi). When excited 

 the little creature emits a rapid succession of short, high-pitched 

 sounds, at the same time opening the mouth to an extraordinary ex- 

 tent, exposing fleshy masses in the position of the masseter and internal 

 pterygoid muscles. The animal is hibernating. It appears to be sim- 

 ply drowsy; it can be easily aroused, and the heat of an apartment at 

 about 05° F. restores it to activity. The breathing is entirely by the 

 flank (so far as can be observed by sight and touch), after the manner 

 of birds. As already mentioned, the hair of the back and loin is mod- 

 erately appressed and of a difl'erent luster from that of the neck and 

 head. The animal is not sensitive to moderate sounds, but loud noises 

 startle it when not in deep torpor from cold. A putt" of air blown upon 

 it brings it up instantly from lethargy, causing it to contract its wings 

 to the smallest compass and open its mouth in evident agitation. The 

 ear when touched with a probe induces the external basal ridge to be 

 curved inward (back of tragus) and lie against the internal lobe, while 

 the deeper parts are completely closed; the tragus is erect and its axis 

 oblique (outward and upward) to the axis of the auricle. 



Fat is stored up in this species (probably likewise in others) in two 

 large coarsely lobate masses between the scapulae, in the recesses be- 

 tween them and the head, and about the pubis. In the latter locality 

 it is oily and less compact than is seen elsewhere. 



