NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 31 



This is a fairly large bat with a total length of about 110 min. ; 

 tail, 50; forearm, 50. In color the fur is deep black, with three 

 large white spots: one at each shoulder and one on the lower 

 part of the back, giving a striking contrast. The lower side is 

 washed with white. The very long ears measured 34 mm. in 

 one specimen. The two upper and two lower premolars, the 

 nostrils simple instead of opening upward or in connection with 

 nasal swellings, and the distinctive color and long ears will 

 serve to identify it easily. 



An account of the skeleton with figures of the important 

 bones has been given by E. R. Hall (1934), who in a later 

 note (1939) adds an eighth to the list of known individuals 

 taken. The localities are: Piru, Ventura County, Calif.; 

 Mesilla Park, N. Mex.; Yuma, Ariz.; Mecca, Kern County, and 

 Yosemite Valley, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; and Salt Lake City, 

 Utah (see Durrant, 1935, p. 226). In every instance only a 

 solitary individual has appeared, and in such unexpected 

 places as clinging to a fence rail, or the under side of a rock, 

 under the eaves of a schoolhouse, in a biological laboratory (!), 

 or on the side of a building. One was found dead in the overflow 

 of a railway water tank. From these few instances it has not 

 been possible to deduce what is the natural resting place of 

 the species by day. Possibly the one found clinging to the 

 lower side of a rock indicates more nearly the sort of place they 

 normally seek for shelter. The area outlined by these eight 

 known instances takes in roughly the arid region of the Great 

 Basin of the Southwestern United States, to which probably 

 the species is confined. Other than the scanty information 

 supplied by the eight specimens hitherto discovered, nothing 

 whatever is known of its habits. It is, however, not at all 

 impossible that it may somewhere be found in greater numbers. 

 Its evidently solitary disposition and its liking for outside 

 resting places make it seem unlikely that it is a colonial and 

 cave-dwelling bat. 



Whether this is a species in danger of eventual extermination 

 can not now be told with certainty, nor does it appear that 

 anything can at present be done to foster it. 



