April 2, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



541 



Executive Council. Four years — Dr. Charles W. 

 Dodge, University of Rochester ; Principal Henry 

 Pease, Medina High School ; Professor W. C. Peck- 

 ham, Adelphi College, Brooklyn. Tliree years — Dr. 

 J. McKeen Cattell, Columbia University, New York; 

 Professor LeEoy C. Cooley, Vassar College, Pough- 

 keepsie ; Professor E. R. Whitney, Binghamton 

 High School. Two years — Professor Irving P. Bishop, 

 Buffalo Normal School; Mr. Charles N. Cobb, Re- 

 gents' Office, Albany ; Professor C. S. Prosser, Union 

 University, Schenectady. One year — Prof essor Albert 

 L. Arey, Rochester Free Academy ; Professor R. E. 

 Dodge, Teachers' College, New York ; Professor T. B. 

 Stowell, Potsdam Normal School. 



Franklin W. Baerows, 



Secretary. 



MIGRATION OF BATS ON CAPE COD, 3IASSA- 

 CHUSETTS. 

 Bat migration has received little atten- 

 tion. Various writers have made vague 

 reference to the fact that certain bats are 

 found in winter at localities where they are 

 not known to breed, but no detailed ac- 

 count of the migratory movements of any 

 species has yet been published. The only 

 special paper on the subject that I have 

 seen is by Dr. C. Hart Merriam,* who 

 clearly establishes the fact that two North 

 American bats migrate. The data on 

 which this conclusion rests are as follows : 

 The hoary bat, one of the migratory species, 

 is not known to breed south of the Cana- 

 dian fauna. In the Adirondack region it 

 appears about the middle of May and dis- 

 appears early in October. During the 

 autumn and winter it has been taken in South 

 Carolina (Georgetown, January 19th), 

 Georgia (Savannah, February 6th), and on 

 the Bermudasf (' autumn '). As the writer 

 remarks, these facts may be fairly regarded 

 as conclusive evidence of migration. The 

 evidence of the migratory habits of the 

 silver-haired bat rests chiefly on the ani- 

 mal's periodical appearance in spring and 

 fall at the lighthouse on Mount Desert 



*Trans. Royal Soc. Canada V (1887), Section V, p. 

 85, 1888. 



1 1 may add that I have a bat of this species, killed 

 at Brownsville, Texas, on October 22d. 



Rock, thirty miles off the coast of Maine. 

 This species has also been observed on the 

 Bermudas. 



In August and September, 1890 and 1891, 

 I had the opportunity to watch the appear- 

 ance and disappearance of three species of 

 bats at a locality where none could be found 

 during the breeding season. Highland 

 Light, the place where my observations 

 were made, is situated near the edge of one 

 of the highest points in the series of steep 

 bluffs of glacial deposit which form the 

 outer side of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The 

 light, which is less than ten miles from the 

 northern extremity of the cape, is separated 

 from the mainland toward the east and 

 northeast by from twenty- five to fifty miles 

 of water. The bluff on which it stands 

 rises abruptly from the beach to a height of 

 one hundred and fifty feet. I found the 

 bats for the most part flying along the face 

 of this bluff, where they fed on the myriads 

 of insects blown there by the prevailing 

 southwest winds. They chiefly frequented 

 the middle and upper heights and seldom 

 flew over the beach at the foot of the bluff 

 or over the level ground about the light- 

 house. I do not know where the animals 

 spent the day, as careful search in old 

 buildings, under the overhanging edge of 

 the bluff, and in deserted bank swallow 

 holes, failed to reveal their hiding places. 

 It is possible that they found shelter in the 

 dense, stunted, oak scrub with which the 

 bluff is in many places crowned, but of this 

 I have no evidence. I hope that the ob- 

 servations given below may again call the 

 attention of field naturalists to a subject 

 which presents many difficult and interest- 

 ing problems. 



Atalapha novbboeacensis* (red bat) . 

 August 21, 1890. The first bats of the sea- 

 son were seen this evening. There were 



*With bat nomenclature in its present unsettled 

 state it is well to use the names adopted by Dr. 



