(For illustration, [see page 566])
Bats reach their greatest development in the tropics, where a marvelous variety of these curious mammals exist. To the northward the number of species gradually decreases, until eventually, in northern Canada and Alaska, a single species represents the group. The United States, occupying the middle latitudes, has a considerable number of different kinds. Some of these remain throughout the year, hibernating in caves during the period of cold, when insects are not to be had; others wing their way southward like birds on the approach of winter and return in spring.
All bats are nocturnal, although individuals of some species occasionally fly about for a time by day and many come out just before or soon after sunset. In this country practically all species are insectivorous, but in Mexico and the West Indies many are fruit-eaters and a few true vampires or blood-suckers.
As a rule, bats are clothed in dull colors, but richly tinted coats give a few a more attractive appearance. Of these none has a more striking adornment than that presented by the soft covering of glossy orange-red fur of the red bat. Its large size, about four inches in total length, with a spread of wings amounting to twelve inches, combined with its color, suffices to distinguish it at once from any other northern species.
The range of the red bat extends from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Ontario and Alberta in southern Canada south throughout most of the United States to the Gulf coast and southern California; also beyond our limits to Lower California and Costa Rica. The genus to which this bat belongs ranges more widely in other parts of North America; also to South America and across the eastern Pacific to the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands.
The red bat rarely or never seeks shelter in gloomy caves and crevices, but hangs to the small twigs or leaf stems on trees and bushes in the full light of the sun. One observer in Texas on July 4 found four of them hanging in a cluster from a twig on a peach tree, with the sun shining full on them, although the temperature in the shade was 82 degrees Fahrenheit. I have found them in northern Illinois in the glaring sunlight of May, hanging from leaves in the tops of oak trees. This unusual tolerance of light in a member of the bat tribe is further shown by its habit of beginning to hunt through the air for insects earlier in the afternoon than other species in its range.
BIG DOG TROTTING
This track of a big dog trotting in about two and a half inches of snow is singular in the perfect register it shows. The hind foot drops each time into the track of the front foot. This correct style is more usual with wild than with tame animals. Compare with track of dog galloping, page 596.
