THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY. 
S33 
brown color, mostly white at the tips of the hairs; lips and'^ears not edged with 
black; a whitish tuft at base of thumb; length three and three-fourths inches; 
extent twelve inches; tail one and three-fourths inches; everywhere abundant in 
the United States. 
Hoary Bat (A. Cinerens). —Rich chocolate brown, overlaid with white; lips 
and ears marked with black; length five inches ; extent fourteen inches; tail two 
and one-fourth inches; entire United States, rather northern, and a rare species. 
Big-eared Bats {Genus Corynorhinus). —Cheeks with two large excrescences ; 
ears excessively large; an inch high; ,teeth 36 ; incisors two on each side in the 
upper jaw, three on each side in lower jaw. 
Big-eared Bat {Corynorhynus Macrotis). —Color blackish; fur soft and long; 
length three and one-half inches; extent eleven inches ; tail one and three-fourths 
inches; inhabits from Virginia to Missouri region and South. 
These include all the bats in the eastern United States, and by the foregoing 
short but precise diagonisis anyone can distinguish to which species a specimen may 
belong. The descriptions were taken from Prof. Jordan’s new work upon the 
vertebrates of the United States. 
Bats inhabit all portions of the world except the colder regions. There are a 
great many species, which differ much from each other. Our own harmless little 
species, when taken, bite furiously. They are very vindictive and difficul^Uto tame, 
but when once subdued form very pleasing pets, and feed upon flies and gnats. 
It is, as has been before stated, known that bats make no nest for their young, or 
in any other way care for their offspring, except by carrying them hanging to their 
fur, whether during flight or while suspended at rest by the legs. From the above 
we would infer that the young bats are born in an advanced condition, so as to be 
able, as soon as possible, to take care of themselves, and that the number produced 
at a birth is small. Both these facts are true. The usual number of young are 
only two, sometimes only one, while occasionally four to five are produced. In 
one case a naturalist found that two unborn bats weighed two-thirds as much as 
the parent, and the average of twenty individuals gave the weight of the young as 
four-tenths that of the parents. The uniformity in the number of youn^ produced 
at a birth with each species is very striking. Twenty-two of one species had each 
two young, while forty of another had each one. In the former case the young 
were placed one on each side of the body, while in the latter case the single young 
was invariably found upon the right side of the body. Although bats usually have 
only two nipples, the American atalapha noveboracensis has an extra pair. One 
of the most remarkable facts in connection with this subject is the power the 
mother bats have to carry such a weight of young in addition to their own. A bat 
can carry nearly double its own weight. Another striking fact is the isolation of 
the females with young. In many caves and hollow trees where from twenty to 
one hundred females with young were found, either no males were found, or only 
one or two. In one large hollow tree one hundred males were found and no 
females. In another were found about an equal number of females, with only a 
few males ^‘here and there.”— Prof. B. G. Wilder. 
A 
