Scraps in Natural History. 245 



of the forest. Whether these relations between animals and 

 their residence are fixed and universal, so that knowing the one 

 we shall be able to infer the other, is an interesting question yet 

 to be determined. 



White emigrants established themselves here as early as 1805. 

 The county covers an area of about four hundred square miles ; 

 the land is level, but has various deep drains, is rich, well wood- 

 ed, without underbrush ; copiously watered, but not by large 

 streams. The increase of population has been such, that the 

 number of inhabitants in 1840 was about twenty three thousand, 

 and Richmond, which was laid out in 1816, contains three thou- 

 sand of these. The latitude of the town is 39° 5V N. Fagus 

 sylvatica, Acer saccharinum, various species of Quercus, of Carya, 

 and of Juglans, and Liriodendron tulipifera, are the prevailing 

 kinds of timber. 



As this section of country is comparatively new, it is presuma- 

 ble that a change will take place in its zoological character ; such 

 a change has indeed already commenced, and its progress up to the 

 present time, will be indicated in the notes to the catalogue. 



I cannot venture to say, that the subjoined enumeration em- 

 braces all the mammalia of this county ; but it is as nearly com- 

 plete as persevering research for several years has been able to 

 make it. Besides my own observations, I have availed myself 

 of the opportunity of gaining information from the first white 

 settlers of this district ; an advantage which will soon be beyond 

 the reach of the future naturalist. If I have omitted any ani- 

 mals now existing here, I can only say, I have had no assistance 

 in detecting them ; and if the catalogue is not lengthened to the 

 utmost, I hope it will be found accurate as far as it extends. 



Carnivora. 



Vespertilionidm. 



1. Yespertilio Noveboracensis, Linn., New York or Red Bat. 



2. V. pruinosus, Say, Hoary Bat. 



3. V. subulatus, Say, Subulate-eared Bat. 



1, 2, 3. Vespertiliones. These are the only species of bat in my collection, and 

 I believe are all that have been found here. V. subulatus appears at present to be 

 the most common. A V. Noveboracensis and a V. pruinosus, more than four inches 

 long, the former a male and the latter a female, were captured in the fall while 

 flying together in the same room. 



