VOL. XIV, PP. 177-178 SEPTEMBER 25, 1901 



PROCEEDINGS 



or THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The bat genus Pteronotus renamed Dermonotus. 



In 1815, Rafinesque, in his 'Analyse de la Nature' (p. 54), substituted 

 Pteronotus in place of Pteropu*, apparently simply because he did not 

 like the latter name. Of course there was no justification for such a 

 procedure and Pteronotus is a pure synonym of Pteropva. Nevertheless, 

 the name was given and consequently its use for another genus pre 

 cluded. However, Gray gave the same name in 1838 to a genus of 

 Phyllostomoid bats, not knowing of its previous use by Rafinesque. As 

 no other has been given to exactly the same type, a new one must be 

 substituted and Dermonotus is appropriate, referring to the extension of 

 the skin of the wings and interfemoral membrane upon the back. 



Those mammalogists who rank Pteronotus and Chilonycteris as sections 

 of one comprehensive genus for which the latter name has been used 

 will be more reconciled to the change when they consider that a less 

 serious one will be entailed. It has been generally overlooked that 

 Pteronotus was published a year earlier than Chilonycteris (1838 instead 

 of 1839) and consequently that name would have to be used instead of 

 Ch.ilonycteris, generally employed for the genus. An examination of the 

 types of the two genera has led me to believe that the two groups should 

 be regarded as generically distinct, if current views as to generic differ 

 entiation are to be adopted. Theodore Gill. 



An addition to the avifauna of the United States. 



During the summers of 1892 and 1893, when accompanying the party 

 then engaged in surveying and re-marking the boundary line between 

 Mexico and the United States, Mr. Frank X. Holzner and I found the 

 35 Bior,. Soc. WASH. Vol.. XIV, 1901. (177) 



