228 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vou.17 
meatus,’’ one point of the dividers being placed in the meatus, the 
other at the tip of the skin of the ear, as before. The first-named 
method of measuring the ear is recommended as it seems to admit 
less chance of error. By either method the measurement is, of course, 
of more value when taken from the fresh (unskinned) animal. 
Mopes oF PRESERVING Bats 
Two modes of preserving bats as specimens are used by collectors, 
namely, immersion in an aleohol or formalin solution of sufficient 
strength to arrest decay and yet not of such concentration as to harden 
the tissues unduly; and preservation as dry stuffed skins, with the 
skull cleaned and saved separately. The latter method is that usually 
employed in preserving other mammals. 
Since the color of the fur of bats is of great importance in 
specific and subspecifie determinations, and since the skulls are of 
prime importance in the matter of general identification, the second 
method is to be recommended in most cases. <A bat skin should be 
made up in the same way as are the skins of other small mammals, 
save that no wire should be used in the wings or feet, the tail only 
being wired. The wine bone should be cut at about the middle of 
the humerus and the distal portion of that bone, together with all the 
other wing bones, left in position. The femur should be cut at the 
middle and its distal portion, together with all bones of the lower leg 
(tibia) and foot, left in position. In ‘‘setting’’ a bat skin, the wings 
should be neatly folded along the sides and held so by pins at the 
sides (but not through the membranes) until dry, the interfemoral 
membrane should be well spread, the feet turned shghtly outward, 
and the knee joint slightly bent. Observance of these precautions will 
facilitate the measuring of bone lengths in the dry skin. 
Where several specimens of the same species of bat are secured, 
one or more may be preserved as alcoholics, since the form of the 
wings and ears are more easily studied in bats preserved in this way. 
SENSES OF Bats 
The writer of the present paper has had no opportunity to carry 
on experiments to determine the relative value of the different 
sensory adaptions of bats; so there are here quoted the conclusions of 
Hahn (1908, pp. 185-193) and of Ackert (1914, pp. 301-343). 
