l62 The Rev. L. Jenyns on the Common Bat ofFennant. 



the description is somewhat more diffuse, there is still the error 

 of confounding this species with the Vespertilio murinus of con- 

 tinental authors alluded to in the beginning of this paper. 



It would seem, therefore, absolutely necessary to impose a 

 new trivial name upon the Common Bat of this country and to 

 treat it as nondescript, if there be really no further account of 

 it than is to be found in the works of our British naturalists. 

 But before taking such a step, it becomes necessary to inquire 

 whether it may not be recognized among any other of the spe- 

 cies described by foreign authors since the time of Linnaeus, 

 however distinct from that with which it has been always con- 

 founded. It does not seem likely that so common a species in 

 this country should be peculiar to it, and not found on the con- 

 tinent, where all our other indigenous Vespertilionida are well 

 known* ; neither is it probable, that if it is to be met with in 

 equal plenty abroad, it should have wholly escaped notice. Now 

 on this point I am inclined to answer in the affirmative ; and, 

 though I give my opinion with much diffidence, I would ask, in 

 what essential points our Common Bat differs from the Pipistrelle 

 of Daubenton and succeeding writers. After a careful examina- 

 tion of very many specimens, and an accurate comparison of 

 these with the descriptions annexed by Daubenton and Geof- 

 froy to that species, I can see no material distinction between 

 them. It is true that Daubenton's dimensions of the Pipistrelle^ 

 as well as those given by Desmarest in his Mammalogie, are 

 somewhat less than in the generality of our English specimens : 

 but such appear to have been taken from immature individuals ; 

 since the proportions between the several parts are still kept 

 up, and the actual measurements agree in most particulars with 

 those of one or two small specimens in my possession. GeofFroy, 



* The Vespertilio pygmxus, discovered by Dr. Leach in Devonshire, appears as yet 

 to be an exception. 



however, 



