98 ZOOLOGY. 



erroneous method of study ? His descriptions differ in tone from those of 

 his predecessors most decidedly ; being rigidly exact, and therefore faithful 

 reflections of certain observed peculiarities, they are, without exception, 

 identifiable. But we are satisfied that he has described specimens only not 

 species in his monograph ; and his discriminations have been pushed to a 

 still more unwarrantable extreme in his subsequent paper (Proceedings of 

 the Philadelphia Academy, 1S(>6, 280 et seq.). Of our own positive knowl- 

 edge, acquired by original investigation, we can affirm, without fear of valid 

 contradiction, that all the characters upon which the f:-molared bats he 

 proposes or adopts rest, come fairly within range of individual variation. 

 These characters are without exception comparative, not positive. They are : 

 details of size and contour of the ear and its tragus ; amount of exsertion 

 of the point of the tail ; extent of attachment of wing-membrane to foot ; 

 and shade of color. We have here nothing to rest upon. At first we were 

 inclined to believe there might be a geographical variety at least, V. " nitidus " 

 constituting the Pacific form ; but we took typical sululatiis in Arizona (as 

 determined by Dr. Allen himself, loc. cit., 288), and specimens from the 

 East will answer the description of nitidus. Besides, nearly all that we 

 know of the distribution of our bats is against a supposition of such geo- 

 graphical limitation. We are convinced that Mr. J. A. Allen has struck at 

 the root of the matter in his criticism (Joe. tit.}. We entirely agree with what 

 seems to us to be his timely and judicious review of the case, viz : that 

 there is but one species ; that there are no geographically limited varieties ; 

 that there may be recognized two "varieties" of ordinary suliilatits, one 

 evotis slender, with largest ears and most pointed snout; the other 

 lucifiigus stout, with smallest ears and bluntest snout ; both shading im- 

 perceptibly into the usual form. They are all, he adds, sometimes found 

 clinging together in the same " festoons ". 



The little Brown Bat and the Red Bat are the two species by far the 

 most abundant throughout this country. Of the present species as many as 

 ten thousand, by actual count, have been destroyed in one building alone. 



NOTE. Iu concluding an account of the Chiroptera, it is proper to state that our 

 article is, to some extent, based upon Dr. Allen's memoir; from which many of the 

 descriptive phrases have been compiled, and much of the synonymy directly borrowed. 



