4 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. I. 
which it feeds- Frequently it will fly to the surface of a pond or 
stream, dipping down U> drink before beginning the evening meal." 
Little is known of its activities through the late hours of the night, 
since it avoids village thoroughfares and the neighborhood of road 
lights, which might otherwise reveal its presence in the blackness. 
Probably, however, it becomes quiet after dark, for at dawn it may 
be seen again, circling the fields or forest openings, generally in the 
shadow of overhanging woods, darting in and out, and now and then 
mounting higher than the tree tops. Once two were observed at 
Floral Park, Long Island, apparently chasing each other back and 
forth among the trees until many minutes after an August sunrise 
had dispelled all dimness from the landscape. When overtaken by 
daylight the Little Brown Hats, according to Stone and Cram.f do 
not seek a particular roost, but hang themselves up to sleep in the 
nearest suitable hiding place, or sometimes from a limb in the open 
woods. 
In the air this species may be distinguished readily from all its 
kindred save one, Say's Bat, Myotis subulatus (Say), which is not 
known to occur on Long Island. The small size of the Little Brown 
Bat, together with the much rounded appearance of the bend of the 
wing are its best marks of identification. It has been estimated that 
its rate of flight may equal twelve miles per hour, and it is very agile, 
wheeling or halting like a flash and sometimes turning a half somer- 
sault in the air in order that it may alight head downward. While 
clinging to a resting place it sometimes employs its thumbs as well 
as its robustly clawed feet, but according to Walter L- Hahn, "the 
feet alone are strong enough to support the animal for weeks at a 
time, and even to support several others of its kind when they cling 
to it." Bunches of fifty or more have been found together- 
The mating of this species proljahly takes place after the end 
of summer. After this season both sexes pass into the more 
or less intermittent torpor of hibernation, from which they do not 
fully awake until April, although mild weather produces partial 
activities and perhaps continuance of the mating. At such times 
they have been known also to crawl or fly to the entrance of their 
winter retreats. The young are two in number and are born in mid- 
*Mr. F. H. Ames of Brooklyn and Mr. E. L. Morris of the Brooklyn Museum 
report seeing a Little Brown Bat flying at 12:25 P. M., May 30, 1913, at Orontium 
Pond, north of Queens, L. I. The sun was shining brightly at the time. The bat cir- 
cled above the pond and made three descents to the surface in order to drink. 
fStone and Cram, American Animals, 1902. 
