Vol. XXVIII, pp. 69-70 March 12, 1915 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



DETERMINATION OF VESPERUGO VAGANS DOBSON FROM 



"BERMUDA." 



In 1879, shortly after the pubhcation of his classical Catalogue of Chir- 

 optera, Dr. G. E. Dobson described a bat, said to be from Bermuda, as 

 Vesperugo vagans,* its type being in the British Museum (No. 79. 1. 7. 1. ). 

 This bat has never been rediscovered, nor is it even mentioned in the 

 account of the Mammals of Bermuda,! written by the donor of the speci- 

 men, Mr. J. M. Jones. 



I have now examined the type, and extracted its skull, which although 

 broken, shows most of the essential characters. 



After a vain attempt to tit it to any known American, European, or 

 African bat I have at last been able to identify it with one from New 

 Zealand, Chalinolnbus tuberculatus Gray, with which it agrees in every 

 detail. How the mistake as to its locality occurred, it is impossible to 

 say, and of but little importance. What matters is we may now safely bury 

 the hitherto problematical Vesperugo vagans Dobson, 1879, in the syn- 

 onymy of Chalinolobus tuberculatus Gray, 1843, and so dispose of the fiction 

 that Bermuda contains a special bat of its own. — Oldfield Thomas. 



THE GENERIC NAME CONNOCH^TES OF LICHTENSTEIN. 



In the General Notes for 1914 (p. 228) Doctor Lyon shows reason for 

 the rejection of the names Gazella and Bubalis as dating from Lichten- 

 stein, 1814, on the ground of their having been published as plural words 

 C'Oazellx" and " Bubalides"), and he attempts to do the same for Con- 

 nochsetes. But in this I venture to think he is in error, for while 8 

 species are included in the Bubalides and 12 in Gazellse, not to mention 

 the 8 in "Antiloppe genuinse," only one is included in Connochsetes, so 

 that this word, as formed by its author, would not have been a plural 

 word at all, but a singular one, and as such valid in nomenclature. 



Moreover, apart from any question of construction, the derivation of 

 the word is amply indicated by Lichtenstein's own quotation of "Bos 

 connochmtes Forster in Mscpt. p. 66" among the synonyms of the single 

 species included. 



Connochsetes therefore appears to me to be a perfectly valid generic 

 name. — Oldfield Thomas. 



•Ann. Mag. X. H. (5) IV. p. 135. 1879. 

 t Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 25, p. 145. 1884. 



9— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash.. Vol. XXVIII, 1915. (69) 



