Feb., 1912. Mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 457 



variable accompaniment of hibernation. When I threw open the 

 bHnd last October, exposing them to the full glare of the afternoon 

 sunlight, they maintained the same position and showed little sign of 

 awakening, but half an hour later had disappeared, though the sun 

 was still several hours high. This year the blinds were left open for 

 the first part of the summer, and the bats were obliged to look up new 

 sleeping quarters. In July I closed the blinds, hoping to entice the 

 bats back to their former apartments; and, sure enough, about the first 

 of the month I was delighted to see a solitary individual hanging by 

 his toes on one corner of the window, fast asleep. Wishing to have him 

 pose as model for an illustration, I unceremoniously routed him out 

 and deposited him on my desk, where he spent a most unhappy morn- 

 ing, losing all patience with me before the portrait was half com- 

 pleted, — which was hardly to be wondered at, considering the cir- 

 cumstances. As often as I tried to get him to change his position, 

 he would break forth into shrill stuttering protests and snap viciously 

 at everything within reach; but he soon quieted down on being left 

 alone, and slept complacently close to my hand while I sketched him. 

 Several times he escaped and flew deliberately downstairs, which I 

 think few birds would have the intelligence and coolness to do. All 

 those that I have seen in similar circumstances fluttered helplessly 

 against the glass or ceiling and absolutely refused to fly downward 

 under any provocation; but my bat flew up or down with equal will- 

 ingness, and from room to room, earnestly searching for a passage 

 to the open air. Whenever he felt tired he would hang himself up 

 in a fold of a curtain to rest, apparently being fast asleep as soon as 

 he was fairly settled. Glass he soon learned to avoid as slippery and 

 treacherous; but the mosquito screens furnished better foothold, and 

 the way he would scuttle about over these was something marvelous. 

 Finally I carried him outdoors and gave him his freedom, and, in 

 spite of the sun, he seemed to find no difficulty in seeing, but started 

 directly for the barn window, which was partly open, and entered it 

 as the swallows did. No one seeing him at the time could reasonably 

 have accused him of blindness; nor did the term 'blind as a bat' 

 seem applicable when you caught the gleam and sparkle of his wicked 

 little eyes, peering out from beneath his woolly eyebrows. He evi- 

 dently decided that he had chosen an unsafe sleeping place, and for 

 a little while the place was deserted; but in a few days I noticed a 

 smaller specimen of his race in the opposite corner, and the day fol- 

 lowmg there were nine of varying size ranged along the upper sash 

 in their usual characteristic attitudes. One near the middle of the 

 row w^as wide awake; washing himself after the manner of a cat, he 



