82 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



crouching low that his form may be sooner 

 outlined against the dim light that still lin- 

 gers in the northwest, when suddenly he 

 shoots by, seemingly as big as an owl, 

 within a few feet of your verv eyes. Turn- 

 ing quickly you fire, but too "late ! He has 

 vanished in the darkness. For more than 

 a week each evening is thus spent, when, 

 perhaps, on a clear cold night, just as the 

 darkness is becoming too intense to permit 

 you to shoot with accuracy, r you are on 

 the point of turning away, something ap- 

 pears above the horizon that sends a thrill 

 of excitement through your whole frame. 

 There is no mistaking the s^.^jcies — the 

 «ize, the sharp, narrow wings, and the swift 

 flight serve instantly to distinguish it from 

 its nocturnal comrades. On he comes, but 

 just before arriving within gun-shot, he 

 makes one of his characteristic zig-zag 

 side-shoots, and you tremble as he moment- 

 arily vanishes from view. Suddenly he re- 

 appears, his flight becomes more steadj-, 

 and now he sweeps swiftly toward you. 

 No time is to be lost, and it is already too 

 dark to aim, so ^-ou bring your gun quickly 

 to your shoulder and fire. With a piercing, 

 stridulus cry, he falls to earth. In an in- 

 stant you stoop to pick him up, but the 

 sharp grating screams, uttered with a tone ' 

 of intense anger, admonish 3'ou to observe I 

 discretion. Withdelightyou cautiously take 

 him in your hand, and hurry to the light to ! 

 feast your eyes upon his rich and handsome 

 markings. He who can gaze upon a freshly \ 

 killed example without feelings of admira- ' 

 tion, is not worthy to be called a naturalist. I 

 "The Hoary Bat occurs about the Red 1 

 River settlement in British America, and Dr. I 

 Richardson obtained it at the Cumberland 

 House on the Saskatchewan, in lat. 54° N. 

 Robert Kennicott procured it in the Hudson 

 Bay Company's territory, further north 

 than any other specips of bat has been 

 taken. It is a sun m r resident of high 

 latitudes. In the \\ es it has been taken 

 in Arizona and New Mexico, but only, so 

 far as I am aware, at considerable altitudes. 

 In fall and winter, isolated individuals have 

 been procured from localities so far to the 

 southward of its usual habitat, that I am 

 constrained to believe it a migratory species. 

 Nothing appears to be known about the 

 breeding habits of the Hoary Bat. On the 

 evening of the 30th of June', 1888, Dr. A. 



K. Fisher shot a large female (measuring 

 422 mm. in spread of wings) at my home 

 in Lewis County. It had already given 

 birth to its young, and each of "its four 

 mammae bore evidence of having recently 

 been nursed. 



'• That the species ruts about the first of 

 August there can be no reasonable doubt, 

 for I saw more of them from the 30th of 

 July till the 6th of August than I have 

 ever seen in all, before or since, and twelve 

 adult specimens killed during that brief 

 period were all males. They were not feed- 

 ing, but were rushing wildly about, evi- 

 dently in search of females. Many flew so 

 high as to be out of range, though directly 

 over head. The only young one I have 

 ever seen was shot here August 6, 1883, by 

 Walter H. Merriam. It was nearly full 

 grown (measuring 400 mm. in extent) 

 and diflferent from the adults chiefly in being 

 lighter colored." 



John Snowdon Howland. 



J. S. Howland, better known as Snow- 

 don Howland, died at his home, Newport, 

 R. I., September 19, 1885. He was a crip- 

 ple from hip disease, caused by bathing too 

 frequently in the salt water when a boy. 

 Though a great suff'erer, and for many 

 months at a time confined to his bed, he 

 was ever cheerful. 



He was one of our best oologists, and 

 the collection he leaves is second to none in 

 quality and very few exceed it in size. The 

 taste with which it was arranged in his cab- 

 inets was such as to make it attractive even 

 to those not interested in such things. 



We can all appreciate the pleasure of 

 making a collection, but probably few of us 

 can realize the satisfaction it gave him, or 

 how much it alleviated his years of suff"er- 

 ing. 



While we miss one whom we have so re- 

 spected and honored, we cannot feel sad 

 when we think that his suflTerings have ended. 



F. T. J. 



The new Check List of North American 

 Birds, and Code of Nomenclature, adopted 

 by the American Ornithologists Union, will 

 be issued during the coming December. It 

 will be an octavo volume of about 300 

 pages. 



