THE WORLD OF THE BAT

Mohr's anecdotes--of hunting vampire bats in Mexico and Guatemala or being overtaken in a tunnel by a flight of bats that sounded ominously ""like an approaching subway train""--add an engaging personal touch to his round-up of bat taxonomy, physiology, and research. But the format, with short, chopped up entries under headings like ""disperal from northern caves"" and ""die-offs spur studies,"" doesn't lend itself to casual reading; nor will this illustrated review stand beside such important surveys as the Novick-Leen Worm of Bats (1969). Place it somewhere in between, for at least halfway-serious students who'll appreciate Mohr's assimilation of the journal literature through the early Seventies, and who'll find the extensive bibliography of the sample an important plus.