86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol, 46. 



"autre chauve-souris" of plate 19 should be regarded as applying 

 to the somewhat wide ranging form in question.^ These names are 

 four: On the larger specunen, Vespertilio molossus major Kerr, 1792, 

 and Molossus fusciventer Geoffrey, 1805; on the smaller specimen, 

 V. molossus minor Kerr, 1792, and Molossus longicaudatus Geoffroy, 

 1805. 



Buffon's plate 19 is an important element in the history of another 

 name, the Vespertilio molossus of Pallas. This was first published 

 in 1766,^ while additional data, mchidmg a figure of the skull, appeared 

 during the subsequent year.^ The name was based on a specimen 

 in the possession of Pallas, not improbably from Surmam, though 

 no direct information is given concerning its origin. The figure 

 shows conclusively that the animal was a Nydinomus of the "ma- 

 crotis" group. Pallas, however, supposed that his bat was the 

 same as the one figured by Buffon, to whose plate he refers as a 

 good representation of those characters of head and lips that sug- 

 gested to him the specific name molossus.'^ 



This confusion of two distinct animals under the specific name 

 molossus continued through the rest of the eighteenth century. In 

 1805 Geoffroy increased it by proposing a generic name Molossus for the 

 bats to which the specific name had previously been applied,^ and 

 then basing his account of the technical characters of the group on 

 one of the specimens (the smaller) figured by Buffon. Although 

 Geoffroy evidently regarded the Vespertilio molossus of Pallas as 

 identical with one or the other of Buffon's specmiens, he applied a 

 new name to e&ch: fusciventer to the larger and longicaudatus to the 

 smaller, probably because he believed that this was made necessary 

 by the transfer of the old specific name from a species to a genus. 

 In the same paper Geoffroy described seven other members of the 

 genus, all technically named for the first time. The group therefore 

 contained nine supposedly distinct forms. By tautonymy its type 

 must be VespeHilio molossus. Since Geoffroy makes no direct ref- 

 erence to Pallas in connection with this name, the type-species 

 should be construed in the wider sense of "molossus Auct." As 

 first reviser I now restrict the name, under the provisions of the Inter- 

 national Code, art. 30 g, to that portion of the composite species 



» On St. Lucia and Barliados a slightly larger form occurs. This appears to be identical with ifolossus 

 sobcuTus of British Guiana. It is not impossible that true major may prove to be this larger animal, in which 

 event a readjustment of names will be required. 



» Miscellanea Zoologica, p. 49. 



s Spicilegia Zoologica, fasc. 3, p. 8, pi. 4, fig. 11. 



* The name JVj/ca'7! 07nM« TTjotosMS (Pallas) should be applied to the "macrorts" of northern South America, 

 reserving Gray's name for the local Jamaican form. 



B Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. 6, pp. 151-154. "Reser\-ant au vesp. leporinus le nom de Noctilio. . . . 

 j'ai 6rig6 en nom gen^rique celui de molossus qui n'a design^ jusqu'ici qu'ime esp&ce, et qui m'a paru propre 

 a faire cormoitre toutes celles qu'on a souvent 6t6 dans le cas de con/ondre sous la mSme denomination. " 



