AMERICAN BATS OF THE GENERA MYOTIS AND PIZONYX 153 



Type. — None specified. The original specimen, on which the de- 

 scription was based, was received from " California." It is probably 

 not now in existence. By the recognizing of the dark northwest-coast 

 form caurinus and the desert form paUidus the name calif ornicus in 

 its subspecific sense has become restricted to the wide-ranging race 

 whose color is intermediate between these extremes. This race occurs 

 in the Monterey region which, as already explained, has been selected 

 as the type locality of Harrison Allen's Vespertilio nitidus. No 

 " selection " seems possible in the case of Vespertilio caUfoimious^ 

 because Audubon and Bachman unlike Doctor Allen, mentioned no 

 localities among which to choose; but for the sake of convenience 

 the one region may be treated as though it were the type locality 

 for both names. 



Distrihution. — From about the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer in 

 continental Mexico, and Cape St. Lucas in Lower California north- 

 ward along the Pacific coast to the region of San Francisco Bay and 

 in the interior to the northern Sierra Nevada, eastern Oregon and 

 extreme southeastern Washington, eastward to western Texas, central 

 New Mexico and west-central Colorado ; replaced by a pallid race in 

 the Great Basin. (See map 11, p. 149.) 



In the San Bernardino Mountains of California Myotis calif orni- 

 cus calif orriicms has been taken at altitudes of nearly 7,500 feet, and 

 in Placer County at 4,000 feet. On the whole it is an inhabitant of 

 the lower altitudes. East of the desert divides of southern California 

 true calif ornicus is replaced by the paler race, pallidum, and on the 

 coast of northwestern California it merges into the dark M. o. 

 caurhvus. 



Diagnosis. — Color above, tawny w^ith a distinct reddish or chestnut 

 tint; tail very long, the ratio of its length to that of head and body 

 averaging about 95. 



Description. — Dorsal surface of head and body " ochraceous- 

 tawny " (Ridgway, 1912) , becoming slightly paler on the head ; be- 

 low, similar but paler varying from a pale wash of the dorsal color- 

 ation to a " pale buff." The bases of the hairs on both surfaces are 

 " sooty black," except those on the base of the interfemoral membrane 

 above and those at the anal region below; these are without dark 

 bases. Several skins from Monterey, Calif., agree in an unusual rich- 

 ness of color, even the entire belly being a bright " ochraceous tawny " 

 like the back. 



As is often the case with reddish species of bats, melanism is not 

 very infrequent. Several skins fi-om Lower California are very dark, 

 nearly " mummy brown " above without reddish shades. Others 

 from Placer County, Calif., are slightly melanistic, a condition which 

 makes them appear almost as dark as M. calif ornicus oaurvnus. 



58518—28 11 



