8 4 
MAMMALIA. 
twilight more than the increased darkness of advancing night ; and 
1 have killed it even on a cloudy afternoon, while flying to and fro 
in pursuit of insects, near the border of a hard-wood grove. I have 
found several of them asleep, in the day-time, hanging by their 
thumb-nails to small twigs or leaf-stems within easy reach. When 
thus suspended they are, at a little distance, easily mistaken for 
dead leaves, or the cocoons of some large moth. 
“ In most portions of the United States, the Red Bat is one of 
the most abundant, characteristic, and familiar species, being rivalled 
in these respects by the little Brown Bat alone. It would be safe 
to say that, in any given instance of a bat entering our rooms in 
the evening, the chances are a hundred to one of its being either 
one or the other of these two species. The perfect noiselessness 
and swiftness of its flight, the extraordinary agility with which it 
evades obstacles — even the most dexterous strokes designed for its 
capture — and the unwonted shape, associated in popular superstition 
with the demons of the shades, conspire to revulsive feelings that 
need little fancy to render weird and uncanny.”* 
As illustrating the devoted attachment of the mother for her 
young, Dr. Godman quotes the following circumstance from Mr. 
Titian Beale : “ In June, 1823, the son of Mr. Gillespie, keeper of 
the city square, caught a young red Bat, ( Vcspertilio Nov-Ebora- 
censis, L.) which he took home with him. Three hours afterwards, 
in the evening, as he was conveying it to the Museum in his hand, 
while passing near the place where it was caught, the mother made 
her appearance, followed the boy for two squares, flying around 
him, and finally alighted on his breast, such was her anxiety to save 
her offspring. Both were brought to the Museum, the young one 
firmly adhering to its mother’s teat. This faithful creature lived 
two days in the Museum, and then died of injuries received from 
* Drs. Coues and Yarrow in their “ Monographic Essay ” on North American Chiroptera, pub- 
lished in chap. II, vol. V, Report upon Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth 
Meridian, in charge of Lieut. G. M. Wheeler, 1875, p. 89. 
