520 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



In forming an estimate of this work it would be unfair to test it 

 by later standards. We must allow much for the crude conceptions 

 and scant knowledge of American bats then existing among the 

 most distinguished naturalists. The number of specimens then 

 available for study in our museums was but a tithe of those now 

 existing, and in the light of such facts Dr. Allen's initial work, per- 

 formed during his leisure hours, does him credit as the pioneer in 

 this branch of mammalogy. 



In 1893 his second Monograph of the North American Bats 

 appeared as Bulletin No. JfS of the National Museum. This issue, 

 more than twice the size of its predecessor, is based on more exten- 

 sive suites of specimens than the first and summarizes the investiga- 

 tions of himself and others, including Dobson, during the intervening 

 thirty years. The book is well illustrated, new methods of ana- 

 tomical comparison are introduced and the morphology in many 

 cases is greatly elaborated. The results, from the standpoint of 

 the systematist, are somewhat confusing, and it is evident that 

 the author was at times led astray by a wrong conception of the 

 laws of geographic variation and unduly biased by his theory 

 of pedomorphism. His effort to set his nomenclature on an endur- 

 ing basis is only partially successful, handicapped as he was by 

 his association with old-school systematists and the small amount of 

 leisure which active office practice allowed him for an exhaustive 

 examination of the literature. As a compendium of our knowledge 

 of North American bats up to that period, in some cases half-con- 

 cealing yet half-revealing the truths which have recently been 

 elaborated by Mr. G. Miller, Jr. in his Revision of the North 

 American Vespertilionidce, 1 Dr. Allen's last edition is a valuable 

 and enduring work, full of original suggestion. It is the standard 

 by which we must judge all future systematic work on the American 

 Chiroptera. It is to be regretted that Mr. Miller should have 

 neglected to do honor, in his Revision, to Dr. Allen's long and 

 faithful service in this special department of zoology. The success 

 of the later naturalist in his monographic work has only been made 

 possible by the years of patient research, the mistakes, the sugges- 

 tions, and withal the earnest truth-seeking, of Dr. Harrison Allen. 



In comparative anatomy Dr. Allen published about forty papers, 

 most of which are in the form of communications to learned societies 

 on the anatomy of Man and the bats, and among these may be 



1 North Amer. Fauna, No. 13, 1897. 



