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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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and walls. No other bat in 

 Mexico or the United States 

 is provided with so strong an 

 odor. 



The Mexican bat is extremely 

 abundant, probably exceeding 

 in numbers any other species 

 within its territory. It ranges 

 throughout the tropical and 

 lower temperate parts of Guate- 

 mala, Mexico, and across our 

 border, throughout most of 

 Texas, and east as far as 

 Florida and South Carolina ; in 

 the West it also abounds both 

 in town and country in the 

 warmer parts of New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and California. 



Closely allied relatives of the 

 Mexican bat abound through- 

 out the warmer parts of Cen- 

 tral and South America to be- 

 yond Brazil. The genus to 

 which this species belongs is 

 represented in the warmer parts 

 of both hemispheres. It ex- 

 tends north in the Old World 

 to southern Europe and also 

 is found in the Philippines. 



The abundance of the Mexi- 

 can bat in some favorable 

 places is almost incredible. At 

 Tucson, Arizona, I once saw 

 them, a short time before dark, 

 issuing from a small window in 

 the gable of a church in such 

 numbers that in the half light 

 they gave the appearance of 

 smoke pouring out of the open- 

 ing. At times they occupy 

 houses in such numbers that 

 their presence and accompany- 

 ing offensive odor render the 

 places uninhabitable. At the 

 town of Patzcuaro, near the 

 southern end of the Mexican 

 table-land, I saw two rooms in 

 an old adobe house occupied 

 by as many of them as could 

 possibly hang from the rough 

 ceiling. The owner considered 

 their presence a valuable asset, 

 as he collected and sold the 

 guano for more than the rooms 

 would have brought in rent. 

 The bats congregate in even 

 greater numl)crs in large caves. 

 So numerous are they in cer- 

 tain caves in Texas that the 

 owner reports an annual in- 

 come of about $7,ooo from the 

 guano. 



They are very plentiful by 

 day in the thin crevices about 

 the roof and walls of caves in 

 the celebrated Ixtapalapa, or 

 "Hill of the Star," beyond the 

 floating gardens at the City of 

 Mexico, and I also found them 



