Notes on the Nomenclature of the Chiroptera. 113 



• fixed ' it, or, not having seen Geoffroy's paper,* simply based 

 Harpyia on Vespertilio cephalotes, which he recognized as distinct 

 from other species of Vespertilio. The original description seems 

 to leave little doubt that Geoffroy intended cephalotes and not 

 peronii as the type of his genus, for he sa} 7 s : " Nous donnons ce 

 nom a la cephalote de Pallas et a une nouvelle espece du vo} ? age 

 aux terres australes, qui out une tres-grande affinite avec les 

 rousettes, mais qui en different assez pour ne pouvoir etre 

 comprises dans le meme genre" (p. 101). Again: "Pallas m'a 

 fourni le nom de cephalote " (p. 104). If this is not con- 

 clusive, it is only necessary to refer to Isidore Geoffroy's expla- 

 nation of the case,f in which he calls attention to Illiger's trans- 

 position of the type, stating that Vespertilio cephalotes was actually 

 the type of Cephalotes, and that Geoffroy afterwards perceiving 

 that cephalotes and peronii were generically distinct proposed 

 Hypoderma for the latter species. He says: " Ce genre [Cepha- 

 lotes], etabli par Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a pour type une espece 

 tres-remarquable par son systeme dentaire, le Vespertilio Cepha- 

 lotes de Pallas. * * * Depuis cette epoque, de nouvelles ob- 

 servations ont demontre la necessite de separer ces deux Chauve- 

 Souris, semblables a quelques egards, mais differant l'une de 

 l'autre par de nombreux et importans caracteres. Cette sepa- 

 ration a ete effectuee par Geoffroy dans un travail public tout 

 recemment (Lecons stenog.), ou le groupe pen nature! des Cepha- 

 lotes est partage en deux genres, Tun conservant le nom de Ceph- 

 alotes, e'est celui qui a pour type le Vespertilio Cephalotes; l'autre 

 nomme Hypoderma, e'est celui qui a pour type la Cephalote de 

 Peron. * * * Quelques auteurs, ayant deja senti la necessite 

 de separer les deux Cephalotes, ont propose de donner le nom 

 (VHarpya cree par Illiger, a la veritable Cephalote, le Vespertilio 

 Cephalotes de Pallas, et de transporter le nom Cephalotes a 1 'espece 

 de Peron." Hypoderma, like Harpyia, is preoccupied in Ento- 

 mology,! and since no other generic name seems to have been 

 proposed for Cephcdotes peronii, a new name is required for the 



* Illiger does not refer to the paper or to Geoffroy's species Cephalotes 

 />, ronii. 



tDict. Olassique d'Hist. Nat., XIY, p. 706, 1828. 



X According to Agassiz the name was proposed by Clark, in 1815, in his 

 ' Essays on the Bots of Horses and other Animals.' I have been unable 

 to find the name in this paper, but it was subsequently used by Latreille 

 in 1825, in his ' Fam. Nat. du Regne Animal,' V, p. 503. 



