52 VESPERTILIONID^— NYCTALUS 



made to include any of the Linnsean species. Lilljeborg {Sveriges 

 och I\Fo7'ges Ryggradsdjur, i., 124-126, 144, 1874) followed 

 Blasius, insisting that it is impossible to determine whether 

 Linnaus's bat is the species afterwards called Vespertilio 

 discolor by Natterer, or that called Vespertilio nilssoni by 

 Keyserling and Blasius, but, contrary to the opinion of Nilsson, 

 he favoured the latter. Lilljeborg, although aware of Blasius's 

 mistake in applying the generic name Vespertilio to a group 

 containing no species known to Linnseus, concluded that as the 

 error had become time-honoured, it were better uncorrected. 



Mr Miller concludes that, " Notwithstanding the incon- 

 venience to which such a course leads, there can scarcely be 

 any valid reason for rejecting the identification of Linnseus's 

 Vespertilio murimis made by Nilsson. The doubt admittedly 

 lies between two species, one of which he deliberately chose with 

 all the facts before him. As nothing in the original description 

 is in any way discrepant with this determination, it should be 

 adopted." 



Genus NYCTALUS. 



1825. Nyctalus, T. E. Bowdich, Exxursions in Madeira^ etc., 36 ; based on N. 



verrucosus of Bowdich, antedating Pterygistes madeir(Z of Barrett- Hamilton, An7i. 



and Mag. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1906, 99. 

 1829. Pterygistes, Jakob Kaup, System der Europdischen Thierwelt, i., 99, 100 ; 



based on Vespertilio '•'• proterus et leisleri." 

 1839. Vesperugo, a. Graf von Keyserling and J. H. Blasius, Wiegmann's Archiv 



fur Naturgeschichte, i., 312 (part) ; based on Vespertilio serotinus of Schreber and 



eleven other species (see below). 

 1842. NOCTULINIA, J. E. Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Dec, 258 ; based on "A^. 



proterus and N.fulvus." 

 1856. Panugo, F. a. Kolenati, Allgeineine deutsche Naturhist. Zeitung (Dresden), 



Neue Folge ii., 131 and 172 ; based on leisleri of Kuhl, and noctula, i.e. La Noctule 



of Daubenton. 

 1878. Vesperugo, G. E. Dobson, Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the Collection of the 



British Museum, 183 (part) ; included also Pipistrellus, Vespertilio, and others. 

 1893. NOCTULINIA, Harrison Allen, Proc. U.S. National Museum, xvi., 30, footnote. 



Classification and Synonymy: — Mr Miller has shown that 

 the genus Vesperugo of Keyserling and Blasius, as originally 

 defined, is inadmissible. It included twelve species : serotinus, 

 discolor, nilssoni, savii, leucippe, aristippe, noctula, leisleri, 

 kuhlii, albolimbatus, nathusiiy and pipistrellus. These were 



