570 VESPERTILIONID.E. VESPERTILIONIN^E. MYOTIS. 



as a superior organ of touch, notifying their owner by the vibration 

 of the waves of air, of the approach of any object. Bats are sociable 

 and gregarious, and frequently many hundreds are found hanging in 

 clusters from the roof of some cave or other hidden retreat. Unless 

 it is the rutting season, these will be found to be all of one sex; for 

 males and females do not keep together as a rule unless during the 

 breeding period. 



Insect-eating bats are divided into numerous families and genera. 

 Of the former, the VESPERTILIONID^; contains the most species, none 

 of which possess the nose-leaf. This family is usually divided into 

 five groups named respectively the PLECOTINE, ANTROZOINE, VES- 



PERTILIONINE, MlNIOPTERINE, and THYROPTERINE, the last tWO of 



which have no members within the limits of the territory covered by 

 the present work, as the MINIOPTERINE belong to the eastern Hemi- 

 sphere and the THYROPTERINE to Brazil and the island of Madagascar. 



Fam. I. Yespertilioiiidae. Common Bats. 



"Bats with turbinal bones folded; bony palate defective ante- 

 riorly owing to the absence of palatal processes to the premaxillae; 

 molars with promiscuous W-shaped cusps; tail included nearly to 

 tip in large interfemoral membrane; muzzle and nostrils variable, 

 but former never provided with distinct nose-leaf.' ' (Miller.) 



The first subfamily, the VESPERTILIONINE division of the bats, 

 contains the vast majority of the species known to belong to the 

 family. They are generally of small size, with inconspicuous ears, 

 and have simple nostrils entirely without any indication of a nose- 

 leaf. They are the common bats of the New World. 



Subfam. I. Vespertilioninae. 

 114. Myotis. Slender, Long-tailed Bats. 



T 2-2. p I-I. p 3-3. AT 3^3 _ -O 



i '3=3' U M' *$= M -3-3~ 35 - 



Myotis Kaup, Skizzirte Entw.-Gesch. u. Naturl. Syst. d. Europ. 



Thierw., i, 1829, p. 106. Type V. murinus Schreber = V>s- 



pertilio myotis Bechstein. 

 Nystactes Kaup, Skizzerte Entw.-Gesch. u. Naturl. Syst. d. 



Europ. Thierw., i, 1829, p. 108. 

 Vespertilio Keyserl & Bias., (nee Linn.), Wiegm., Archiv. f. 



Naturg., 1839, p. 306. 

 Selysius Bonp., Icon. Faun, Ital., 1841, Introd., p. 3. 



