(5359 4 
XV. Some Observations on the Common Bat of Pennant: with 
un Attempt to prove its Identity with the Pipistrelle of French 
Authors. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A. F.L.S. Com- 
municated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society. 
Read February 3, 1829. 
Ir has been usual with every systematic writer upon British 
zoology from the time of Pennant to the present day, to refer 
the Common Bat of this country to the Vespertilio murinus of 
Linneus. Upon the correctness or incorrectness of this con- 
clusion it were not, perhaps, at this period very easy to speak 
with certainty ; since many of the descriptions of that author, 
from the paucity of species then known, are drawn up in such 
vague and general terms as to admit of application to several 
others besides the one originally alluded to. It is, however, 
somewhat remarkable that no one should ever have observed 
the striking disagreement between our English Bat and that to 
which the continental authors have continued to give the Lin- 
nean name, and the consequent impropriety of referring both 
these to the same species and making them synonymous. This 
difference resides not merely in the colour and general appe: 
ance of these two Bats, compares vi 
the auricle and its operculum, an ) eir relative 
dimensions,—but most ‘palpably? in their absolute size. In the 
detailed descriptions of the Vespertilio murinus given by Geot e 
and Desmarest, we find the average measurements of this Species 
VOL. XVI. Y eee” 
