AMERICAN BATS — HANDLEY 167 



the confusion of names, however, beheving P. rafinesquii and P. 

 macrotis to be the names applicable to the two species. It is now 

 evident (p. 156) that both of these names apply to a single species of 

 the southeastern United States, and that P. townsendii is the name 

 to be used for the wide-ranging species inhabiting parts of Canada, the 

 United States, and Mexico. 



Habitat: In a species so widely distributed as P. townsendii, the 

 formulation of a generalized description of its habitat preferences is a 

 difficult matter. For the brief description of such a distributional 

 pattern, the life zones of Merriam are the most useful of the numerous 

 ecological unit concepts that have been proposed. Such units as the 

 biotic provinces, faunal areas, biotic areas, and biotic districts of 

 American authors (Cockrum, 1952, pp. 9-15) are useful in small scale, 

 as in describing the distribution of an animal in a county or a state, 

 but they are not adapted to definition of a range continental in scope. 



P. townsendii is an inhabitant chiefly of the Upper Sonoran and 

 Transition life zones, ranging in some places into the cooler Canadian 

 zone and in others into the warmer Lower Sonoran zone. Eastern 

 populations occupy parts of the humid subdivisions of the Upper 

 Sonoran (Upper Austral) and Transition zones. 



This species appears to be absent or generally uncommon in prairie 

 and extreme desert habitats but may be relatively common in a 

 variety of others. Dalquest (1947, pp. 21-24) provided excellent notes 

 on habitats of the species in California (west of the Great Valley). 

 Typical are: Cultivated valleys bordered by broad-leafed trees and 

 dense thickets of brush; nearby hills with extensive grassy slopes, 

 groves of oaks, areas of chaparral, and forests of coniferous trees and 

 madrona. Oak-covered hills just below the juniper and pinon belt. 

 Coastal lowland supporting dense, ocean-side vegetation, such as 

 brush and lush annuals. 



Johnson, et al. (1948, p. 343) in the Providence Mountains of the 

 Mohave Desert found this bat in caves and tunnels near the boundary 

 between the yucca belt of the lower slopes and the pinon-juniper belt 

 of the upper slopes of the mountains. In the Pocatello region of 

 Idaho, Whitlow and Hall (1933, p. 243) observed Plecotus in mine 

 tunnels in the juniper belt lying between the Douglas fir-aspen zone 

 of the mountain tops and the sagebrush zone of the valleys. 



Most Mexican records for P. townsendii are from arid regions. 

 Thus, Hooper (1955, p. 5) found this species at San Andres where the 

 hills were grass covered and the nearby mountains were arid, mostly 

 grassy, but with pines and deciduous oaks scattered over the upper 

 slopes, and forming thickets and forest on the canyon floors. How- 

 ever, Goldman (field notes) coUected P. townsendii together with P. 

 mexicanus at more humid localities in Guanajuato and Zacatecas where 



