96 
MAMMALIA. 
less than ten minutes, according to the season. The loss of time, 
therefore, occasioned by searching for fallen bats is of the most 
serious consequence, and can only be overcome by the aid of a dog, 
or of an associate. In fact, the value of a willing assistant can 
scarcely be exaggerated. He stands a little to one side of the 
hunter and carefully notes the line in which a bat falls. The 
hunter likewise marks the direction, and as both advance simul- 
taneously, the point of intersection of the two lines shows the exact 
position of' the bat. A lantern with a good reflector is of some 
service, but too much reliance must not be placed upon it, and it 
should always be carried by the assistant, who, where bats are fairly 
abundant, may double the number of specimens secured. 
The earliest date at which I have observed the Silver-haired Bat 
in the Black River Valley is the 26th of April (1884). It com- 
menced to fly at about 7.20 p. m. 
VESPERTILIO SUBULATUS Say. 
Little Brown Bat. 
Next to the silver-haired bat, this is the commonest and most 
universally distributed species in the Adirondacks, so far as my 
observations extend. Professor Baird has taken the typical animal 
at Elizabethtown, and the form known as lucifugus at Westport. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher and Mr. Oliver B. Lockhart have killed it at 
Lake George, and Walter H. Merriam in Keene Valley, these 
localities being all upon the eastern slope of the mountains ; and I 
have a specimen from Big Moose Lake in the interior, and have 
found it in considerable numbers at several places on the western 
side of the Wilderness. 
In coloration, the young of the Little Brown Bat differs from 
its parents even more than does the young of the silver-haired 
species. An immature male which I shot August 15th, 1883, had 
attained the full dimensions of the adult, but was of an entirely 
