BAT!?. 293 



custom of long winter-sleeping; in caves, together with their 

 singular and revolting forms, are familiar to all. There are 

 a number of bats on the mountain. The venerable Le Conte, 

 whose wonderful mind seems to have left no department of 

 nature unexplored, has given the best descriptive catalogue 

 of North American bats.* Of the fifteen species of the genus 

 Yespertilio described by him, five are found on the Alle- 

 ghanies in Pennsylvania. 



YESPERTILIO noveboracensis, (Linn.) This is a universally 

 diffused and common member of the family. It is generally 

 found about houses and other buildings, so that this bat is 

 as familiar almost as the common rat. It is found from 

 Canada to Florida, and numerous everywhere. 



YESPERTILIO cinereus, (Pal de B.) This is not so common 

 a species here. " It is the largest of all the bats found in 

 the United States," its length being six inches. 



YESPERTILIO fuscus, (Pal de B.) " This species is common 

 in the Northern States." 



YESPERTILIO pulverulentus, (Tern.) " Inhabits from New 

 York to Georgia." 



YESPERTILIO subulatus, (Say.) This is the common little 

 brown bat, flapping about every place at night, even pur- 

 suing its prey into houses. 



Where bats accumulate in caves for their winter lethargy 

 their number is almost incredible. They seek the dry parts 

 of the caverns, sticking to the walls and hanging in enormous 

 bunches by their hooks to each other. They no doubt cling 

 together for mutual comfort, thus preserving their natural 

 temperature by contact with the furry and hairy covering of 

 each other's bodies. These living, black, ghastly festoons, 

 give quite an expression of infernalism to the caves in which 

 they congregate ; and myriads thus collecting together and 



* See " Observations on the North American species of Bats," Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 

 vii. p. 431. 



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