428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



Generic Characters. — Head long; muzzle conical; nose-leaf simple, 

 erect, lanceolate; nose-pad rounded; nostrils elongate, distinct: lower 

 lip wdth a triangular pad bearing a longitudinal groove; ears large, 

 imited; tragus lanceolate; uropatagium large; tail long, projecting 

 somewhat beyond the posterior margin of the uropatagium, which 

 completely envelopes it but the free apex; calcanea short and stout. 

 Skull with the rostrum moderately long, considerably lower than the 

 brain-case. Dentition i. ^^, c. ^, p. I^g, m. ^^. Median upper 

 incisors chisel-shaped, long; lateral upper incisors w^eak. 



Distribution. — Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and a number of the Bahama 

 Islands; Guatemala north to southern California and Arizona, but 

 apparently not reaching the east coast of the mainland except in Yuca- 

 tan. 



History. — ^The genus Macrotus was founded by Gray on M. water- 

 housii from Haiti, and referred by him to the Phyllostomina close to the 

 genus Macrophyllum. Wagner, in the supplement to Schreber's monu- 

 mental work, placed Gray's genus in the Megadermota with Megader- 

 ma, Rhinopoma, Nycteris and Nyctophilus. In 1858 Baird described 

 the Californian M. californicus, and, probably following Wagner, con- 

 sidered the genus a member of the subfamily Megadermota. Saussure, 

 in 1860, in describing the Mexican M. mexicanus, referred the genus to 

 the group Phyllostomides, but Harrison Allen, in 1864, followed Wagner 

 and Baird, and considered it a member of the Megadermatida;. Gund- 

 lach, in 1864, separated the small Cuban type as M. minor, while Peters, 

 in 1865, considered the genus a member of his group Vampyri. Coues 

 and Yarrow, in 1875, placed the genus in the family Phyllostomatidce, 

 in the section Vampyri, of which Dobson later placed it. In both of 

 these papers M. californicus, mexicanus and waterhousii were consid- 

 ered identical. On the basis of several specimens from Guatemala, 

 Dobson separated a species which he called M. hocourtianus. Harrison 

 Allen, in 1890, separated a form of the genus from the State of Jahsco, 

 Mexico, as M. hullcri, comparing it with M. californicus; the same 

 author, in the 1894 edition of his Monograph, defended his statement 

 made in 1864, that Af . californicus was distinct from the West Indian 

 waterhousii. Lyddeker, in 1891, believing that the name Macrotis 

 Dejean invahdated Macrotus Gray, proposed the name Otopterus to 

 replace Gray's term. This action was criticised later by True and 

 Harrison Allen, who held that Macrotis was little used and in construc- 

 tion differed from Macrotus. 



General Relations. — As little satisfactory material of the alhed genera 

 is available, no critical remarks as to the relationship of the genu? can 



