26 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
zones. The few isolated regions where they do not occur, as 
Iceland, St. Helena, Galapagos Islands and Kerguelan Islands 
are mostly such as have few flying insects. The faunas of the 
eastern and western hemispheres are very distinct. But one 
species and three genera and two families are represented in 
both. 
The Vespertilionide have the widest range of any of the 
families of bats, the Hmballonuride being next in order of ex- 
tent. The Pteropodide are found in the Ethiopian, Oriental 
and Australian regions, the Malay Archipelago being, perhaps, . 
the central point. 
The Rhinolophide are restricted to the eastern and the Phyl- 
lostomidce to the western hemisphere. There are many instan- 
ces of apparently arbitrary restriction of species and genera 
to limited stations, but more of unusually wide distribution. Of 
the origin of the group we have no knowledge. The oldest 
fossil bat is from the Eocene of Montmartre and differs very 
little from the modern genus Vespertilio. It can not be doubted 
that the type is a very old one and in spite of several apparent 
links with the Insectivora, it is not impossible that the bats 
are derived from a primitive and perhaps an aquatic vertebrate 
allied with Amphibia. 
Linnzeus knew seven species of bats while the present enu- 
meration includes above four hundred species. 
Dr. Harrison Allen in his monograph of the bats of North 
America, published by the Smithsonian Institution in the Mis- 
cellaneous Collections, 1867, enumerates twenty species, sev- 
eral of which must be regarded as synonyms. 
Mr. J. A. Allen mentions six species from New England in 
his catalogue of the mammals of Massachusetts published in 
the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 
This number is naturally greater than can be expected from 
a single inland state. Only three species have been collected 
during the progess of this survey, which are described to- 
gether with the notices of the species otherwise known to occur 
in our limits. 
Only one leaf-nosed bat occurs in the United States, the Mac- 
yotus californicus of Baird, which occurs in California, south- 
ward. The Noctilionide are represented by a Mexican species, 
Nyctinomus nasutus. 
Several genera of the Family Vespertilionide occur as 
follows: 
