Tl\K SAV MAT. 



r('('liiii»- oi' (leU^statioii which most people have for them is therefore 

 wholly without warrant. They never become noxious except when, 

 as sometimes happens, they gather in great numbers in the attic of 

 a dwelling. At such times the odor becomes very offensive. They 

 are also infested by many parasites, of which the bedbug is one, and 

 these sometimes overrun a house which the animals inhabit. It is, 

 however, comparatively easy to get rid of them by covering the holes 

 by which they enter with screen wire. The fumes of formaldehyde 

 or bisulphide of carbon will drive them away if the attic is reason- 

 ably tight. 



There is no reason to believe that bats have decreased in num- 

 ber since the country was first settled. Their nocturnal hal)its pro- 

 tect them well from man. Birds and beasts of prey cannot get 

 them easily because they hide away in inaccessible places when at 

 rest and their swaft, erratic flight makes it difficult for even the owls 

 to catch them, while hawks and other diurnal birds of prey get them 

 only by accident. So greatly has their freedom from danger mod- 

 ified their habits, that the feeling of fear is almost lacking. 



MYOTIS SUBULATUS (Say). 

 THE SAY BAT. 



Vespertilio suhiilahis Say, Long's Exped. to the Rocky Mts., 

 Vol. 2, p. 65 footnote, 1823. 



Vespertilio gryphus lucifugus Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. 

 Acad. Sci. for 1893, p. 134, 1894. 



Myotis suhxilatus Miller, N. Am. Fauna, No. 13, p. 75, 1897. 



Diagnostic characters. — Resembles the preceding species in size 

 and often in color ; ears longer and more slender, reaching beyond 

 the tip of the nose when laid forward; tragus longer and more 

 pointed (fig. 28, b) ; skull more slender and with the braincase 

 rising more abruptly from the rostrum. 



Description. — Hair dusky at the base ; hairs of the back usually 

 smoky brow^n, seldom tipped with glossj^ brown ; after moulting in 

 late summer, often having a dull golden tinge ; hairs of under sur- 

 face seldom brownish or yellow, generally silvery white. Fur denser 

 and softer than that of M. lucifugus. Ears and membranes more 

 grayish than those of the preceding species. 



The ears are long and slender, reaching two millimeters or 

 more beyond the nose when laid forward. The posterior border 

 tapers more uniformly than lucifugus and the point is less blunt. 

 The tragus is long.'slendei-, nearly straight and uniformly tapering 

 to the narrowly pointed tip. 



