THE QUAY KAT. 



625 



and membranes with a sticky substance, thus rendering them less 

 sensitive, also had a marked effect. 



It is probable that the flying bats perceive objects through the 

 medium of the ears when the air between the moving animal and 

 some solid body is condensed. The condensation of the air also 

 stimulates the delicate organs of touch which are located about the 

 base of the hairs on the body and membranes. 



Bats have great agility in the air and can alight on a vertical 

 wall or other object which is not perceived until they are within 

 a couple of inches of it. This agility enables them to escape injury 

 by striking head on, against the sides of the cave. 



These animals quickly learn to go to a definite location for food 

 or to escape confinement. A Myotis suhulatus which I had in cap- 

 tivity, readily learned to go to a certain spot in its cage marked 

 by a piece of white cloth. When the cage was turned so that the 

 cloth wa^ on the west side instead of the east as before, the bat 

 still went to the east side instead of to the cloth. This experiment 

 and others like it show that the animals do not depend on sight, 

 hearing, smell or taste for orientation. They have a sense of direc- 

 tion apart from the other senses. This may be truly a sixth sense, 

 located in the muscles and joints or in the semicircular canals; or 

 it may be due to the ability of the animals to quickly render an 

 act automatic, as a blind man learns, after long experience, to go 

 about places with which he is familiar. 



MYOTIS GRISESCENS Howell. 

 GRAY BAT. 



Myotis grisescens Howell, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washington, Vol. 

 22, 1909. 



Myotis velifer Miller, N. Am. Fauna. No. 18, p. 56, 1897. 

 Hahn, Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, Vol. 35, p. 580, 1908. 



Diagnostic characters. — Easily distinguished from any other 

 Myotis known to occur in the eastern United States by its large 

 size. The forearm measures 40 mm. (1 2/3 in.) or more. 



Description. — The color does not differ markedly from that of 

 other species belonging to this genus. The back is light sepia in 

 color and the belly much paler. In a specimen from Mitchell there 

 are white hairs about the mammae and along the middle line of the 

 belly, and blackish spots on the shoulders. 



The ears (fig. 28, c)'' are rather short, narrow and pointed, reach- 



'"This. figure was inserted when it was supposed that the species under considera- 

 tion was M. velifer. Howell has recently described it as grisescens, but the ears- 

 are similar in the two species. 



[40] 



