NYCTALUS 53 



arranged in two subgenera — Vesperugo including the thirty-four- 

 toothed species, and Vespe^'-us those with thirty-two teeth. The 

 subgenus Vesperus is exactly equivalent to the restricted genus 

 Vespertilio of Linnaeus, to the genera Eptesicus of Rafinesque 

 and CnephcBus of Kaup, all of which antedate it. Apart from 

 this, however, it would be necessary to find the type of the 

 genus among the species referred by the authors to the typical 

 subgenus. These represent two modern groups — the first con- 

 sisting of nodula and leisleri, the second of the remaining 

 thirty-four-toothed species. Each of these groups had been 

 named by Kaup ten years previously. Therefore each of the 

 constituent parts of the genus Vesperugo was provided with a 

 tenable name at the time when the composite genus was formed. 



The segregation of the noctttla-leisleri group has long been 

 urged by technical naturalists, on the grounds of their 

 generally heavy build and long narrow wing, with reduced 

 fifth metacarpal. It has even been recently advocated by 

 a field naturalist, Mr C. B. Moffat, who contends that {Irish 

 Naturalist, 1905, 104) the very wide difference shown to 

 exist between the feeding habits of these bats and those of 

 the Pipistrelle must be correlated with some important internal 

 differences, a strong argument for generic separation. This 

 was first attempted by Gray, whose genus Noctulinia was 

 merely characterised as " with the feet quite free, the wing 

 being only attached to the ankle ; they are otherwise like 

 Scotophihts,'' and consequently contained more species than 

 Nyctalus, as used here ; it was adopted by Blyth and Jerdon 

 (see under synonymy of N. nocttcla). In 1893 the genus was 

 for the first time accurately diagnosed in its present scope by 

 Harrison Allen, but the name which he proposed for it is clearly 

 antedated by Kaup's Pterygistes and Bowdich's Nyctalus (see 

 Dr Andersen, Ann. and Mag, Nat. Hist., May 1908, 434), both 

 recently unearthed from oblivion. The present arrangement 

 was at first rejected by Mr Thomas {Zoologist, 1898, 100), then 

 reluctantly accepted {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July 1901, 

 34), and now seems likely to meet with universal approval. 



The genus Nyctalus includes two British species {N. noc- 

 tula and N. leisleri). These are remarkable for their powerful, 

 swift-like flight, and the fact that, unlike the Pipistrelle, which 



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