694 



N rCXIMENE. 



by Miller, I. s. c, 1907, owing to the shape of the postdental 

 palate), would onlj' tend to obscure its natural affinities, without 

 any practical advantaji;e as a compensation. 



Chronologji of S'pecies and revisions. — Three sp{ cies of this genus 

 were described between 1707 and 1877, three again between 1900 

 and 1904, while six were added during the jireparalion of this 

 Catalogue (sec table below). Tu 18(57, when Peters revised the 

 genus, two species had been described, ceiihalotes and albiventer ; 

 he recognized only the former, considering albiventer the young of 

 ceplialotes. Gray, in 1870, while admitting the possibility of 

 Peters's view, allowed albiventer to stand provisionally, until better 

 known, as a species distinct from cej'halotes. Dobsou, iu his Cata- 

 logue (1878), again united albiventer with cephalotes, ])ut added a 

 species [major) described by himself one year before ; " cephalotes," 

 as understood by Dobson, is equivalent to i\^. papiumus, albiventer, 

 and cephalotes of the present Catalogue, his " major " to N. r/emimis, 

 jnajor, and scitulus. Matschie's revision (1899) differed from 

 Dotison's only in an attempt to separate major subgenerically 

 {^^ Bdeh/f/ma") from cephalotes. The distinctness of albiventer, as 

 compared with cephalotes, was pointed out by Oldtield Thomas in 

 1900 (Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) v. p. 217 ; cf. (7) xiv. p. 198, 1904) ; 

 '■^albiventer," as understood by Thomas, corresponds to N. papuaniis 

 and albiventer of this Catalosruc 



Technical names. — The earliest name of this genns, Nyctimcne 

 (Borkhausen, 1797; single species, YespertUio cephalotes, Pallas), 

 rested for more than a century in practically complete oblivion, 

 until revived, in 1902, by Olilfield Thomas (who traced it back to 

 Uechstein, 1800). Till tliis earlier name was discovered, the 

 history of the Tube-nosod Pruit-bats, as a genus distinct from 

 " y^esperlilio" and '■'■ Fteropus," was commonly believed to date 



