96 MAMMALIA. 



less than ten minutes, according to the season. The loss of time, 

 therefore, occasioned by searching for fallen bats is of the most 

 serious consequence, and can only be overcome by the aid of a dog, 

 or of an associate. In fact, the value of a willing assistant can 

 scarcely be exaggerated. He stands a little to one side of the 

 hunter and carefully notes the line in which a bat falls. The 

 hunter likewise marks the direction, and as both advance simul- 

 taneously, the point of intersection of the two lines shows the exact 

 position of the bat. A lantern with a good reflector is of some 

 service, but too much reliance must not be placed upon it, and it 

 should always be carried by the assistant, who, where bats are fairly 

 abundant, may double the number of specimens secured. 



The earliest date at which I have observed the Silver-haired Bat 

 in the Black River Valley is the 26th of April (1884). It com- 

 menced to fly at about 7.20 p. m. 



VESPERTILIO SUBULATUS Say. 

 Little Broivn Bat. 



Next to the silver-haired bat, this is the commonest and most 

 universally distributed species in the Adirondacks, so far as my 

 observations extend. Professor Baird has taken the typical animal 

 at Elizabethtown, and the form known as htcifugus at Westport. 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher and Mr. Oliver B. Lockhart have killed it at 

 Lake George, and Walter H. Merriam in Keene Valley, these 

 localities being all upon the eastern slope of the mountains ; and I 

 have a specimen from Big Moose Lake in the interior, and have 

 found it in considerable numbers at several places on the western 

 side of the Wilderness. 



In coloration, the )^oung of the Little Brown Bat difi^ers from 

 its parents even more than does the young of the silver-haired 

 species. An immature male which I shot August 15th, 1883, had 

 attained the full dimensions of the adult, but was of an entirely 



