TWK HVA) BAT. 



0:35 



M(usur()ii<nls.-—'rhvvv spcciinens from i^looiiiiiigtoii average: 

 Totnl length,, 104.:^ mm. (4 :3/10 in.) ; tail, 5:3 mm. (2 2/10 in.) ; 

 hind foot, 7.:3 nnn. 1() in.) ; foiH^arm. 41 mm. (1 11/10 in.) ; til)ia, 

 20 mm. (12/10 in.) ; ear (from meatus), 11 nnn. (7/10 in.). 



Skull and teeth. — The skull (fig. :32) is short and heavy. The 

 l)!';iinease is high, but slopes evenly to the nuizzle ; zygomatic arches 



(M- Miller, 



N. Am. Fauna No. 13, Bureau of the Biol. Sur., U. S. Dept. of Agri. 



prominent ; palate broad ; rostral region with, a median depres- 

 sion. The teeth are large, the molars having very large grinding 

 surfaces and the canines being thick and strong. The skull is one 

 of the most easily recognized of our bats. Measurements of a skull 

 from Winona Lake: Greatest length, 14 mm. (1:3/10 in.) ; length 

 of palate, 0 mm. (4/10 in.) ; maxillary tooth row. 5 mm. (:3/10 in.) ; 

 greatest breadth of braincase, 8 mm. (5/10 in.) ; depth of braincase 

 over audital bulla, 8 mm. (5/10 in.). 



Range. — From Florida and Texas to the colder parts of British 

 America. In Indiana it is a common bat throughout the State, al- 

 though not taken as often as some of the other species because it 

 does not frequent caves. It is recorded from Winona Lake, Wa- 

 bash, Carroll, Vigo and Noble counties, and from Mitchell, Bick- 

 nell, Richmond. Denver and Bloomington ; also from Chicago, Illi- 

 nois. 



Habits. — The red bat is an inhabitant of the forest, where it 

 lives in hollow trees and among the leaves and branches. Stone 

 states that they congregate in caves in immense numbers, and Mer- 

 riam also speaks of them entering caves. The writer has had ex- 

 tensive acquaintance with the cave fauna of Indiana and Kentucky, 

 but has never met with this species living in the caves. Dr. A. M. 

 Banta, who has studied the cave fauna of this region extensively, 

 has had the same experience. 



However, there is evidence that these bats once frequented 

 caves. In a large chamber of Shawnee Cave at Mitchell, more than 



