6 INTRODUCTION 



unjustly forgotten Pterygistes, Pipistix litis, and Myotis. Yet 

 so great has been, until recently, the general ignorance of the 

 mammalian literature of the past, that it was left to Dr 

 Andersen in 1908 to show that the Noctule and its congeners 

 must be assigned to the genus Nyctalus hitherto associated 

 with the fruit bats. Thus Nyctahis replaces Pterygistes 

 with almost confusing celerity. The changes effected, although 

 in themselves sufficiently violent and for a time inconvenient, 

 are likely to be as permanent as any other system of 

 nomenclature, and have now been, with exceptions as to 

 details, accepted by the majority of systematic zoologists. 

 We thus find the vespertilionid bats apportioned to six 

 genera, viz. : — Nyctalus with two species ; Pipistrellus with 

 one ; Vespertilio with one ; Myotis with four ; Barbastella with 

 one ; and Plecottis with one. The Rhino lop hides, with one 

 genus [Rhino lop htis) and two species, remain as before. 



The present aspect of our study cannot but at first sight 

 appear pedantic ; and the writer would be fortunate who could 

 avoid it altogether. But there is no excuse for neglecting details, 

 even of nomenclature, and each change may be welcomed as one 

 step more toward such finality as is possible to human institutions. 

 Structure: — For a proper appreciation of the specific and 

 generic characters of bats, a thorough acquaintance with the 

 form of their ears and wings and the shape 

 and number of their teeth is necessary. In 

 acquiring this, the diagram (Fig. i) will be 

 found useful. 



In all British bats except the Rhinolo- 



phidce there springs from the inner or anterior 



margin of the ear a process called the tragus ; 



it has the appearance of a second or inner 



^'^•VA?rEAr°'^ ear. At the base of the outer or opposite 



a^ tragus; margin, and especially conspicuous in the 



^, antitragus ; RJiinolophidcB, ariscs a lobe known as the 



<:, anterior margin : .•. '-t->i i i • r i 



«^. posterior margin. antitmgus. The shapc and size of these 

 two is of some importance in classifying and 

 identifying these animals (Fig. 3), but great caution should be 

 observed in the examination of these parts in preserved speci- 

 mens, the ears of which may alter considerably. In a series of 



