I04 VESPERTILIONID^— PIPISTRELLUS 



1840. Vespertilio lacteus, C. J. Temminck, Mo7iographtes de Mammalogie, ii., 

 245 (for date see Wiegmann's Archiv, 1841, 23) ; described from two nearly white, 

 immature bats of doubtful origin in the Leiden Museum (see Dobson, Catalogue^ 

 225). 



1841. Vespertilio vispistrellus, C. L., Prince Bonaparte, Fauna Italica, i., pi. xi., 

 fig. I ; described from Italy. 



1842. Kerivoula GRISEUS, J. E. Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., December, 258 ; 

 described from a spirit specimen of unknown origin in the British Museum (Dobson, 

 Catalogue, 225). 



1844. Vespertilio nigrans, J. Crespon, Faune Meridionale, i., 24, is thus placed 

 by E. L. Trouessart, Bull, de la Soc. d'' Etude des Sci. Nat. de Nimcs, 7, i, 55, 1879 ; 

 and, on the authority of Paul Gervais, identified with P. pipistrelltis though slightly 

 smaller ; it was described from Nimes, France. But Gervais, Histoire Naturelle 

 des Mammiferes, i., 216, 1854, cites V. nigrans next to pipistrellus, but as a distinct 

 species, under the name of V. nigricans Gene : this is evidently not K nigricans of 

 Maximilian, 1826, which antedates it. 



1856. NannugO pipistrellus, F. a. Kolenati, Allgemeine deutsche Naturhist. 

 Zeitung (Dresden), Neue Folge, ii., 131, 170. 



1858. Nannugo MINUTISSIMUS, F. A. Kolenati, Sitsungsberichte der Kaiserlichen 

 Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna), xxviii. (3), 246, and xxix. (10), 334, fig. 7. 



1 862- 1 863. Nannugo pipistrellus, a, van tvpus, p. 490 ; /3, van flavescens, 

 p. 491 ; 7, var. NIGRICANS, p. 491 ; 5, var. LIMBATUS, p. 492 ; Carl Koch, 

 Jahrbiccher des Vereins f'iir Naturkunde iin Herzogthuvi (Nassau), xviii., 487-500 ; 

 described from Nassau, Germany. 



1870. Vesperugo MINUTISSIMUS, L. J. Fitzinger, Sitzungsbcrichte der Kaiserlichen 

 Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna), Ixii. (i), 252. 



1874. SCOTOPHILUS PIPISTRELLUS, Thomas Bell, History of British Quadrupeds, 

 ed. 2, 34 ; E. T. Newton, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (London), 1894, 193. 



La Chauve-Souris, or la Pipistrelle of the French ; die Zivergflcder- 

 maus of the Germans. 



Synonymy : — This presents no difficulty. Those who object to 

 the Scomber scomber principle will probably find the combination 

 Pipistrellus pygnicsus (Leach) correct. 



Local Names (non-Celtic): — Athern-bird, of Somerset (Forbes); 

 back-bearaway ^ (black-bear-away, Forbes), of Yorkshire (Atkinson, 

 Zoologist, 1878, 330; and Forty Years in a Moorland Pai'ish, 1892, 137), 

 from back,^ backie, bak, bakke, bauckie, baukie, or bawkie, an old form 

 of bat, having variants in Denmark, Iceland (compare ledhrblaka, i.e., 

 leather-flapper), Norway (compare Old Norse blaka, i.e., to flap), and 

 Sweden (compare nattblacka, i.e., a bat), and still used in Scotland, often 

 in combination as backie-bird, etc. (Alston) ; barnmouse, bastat, bathy- 



^ A word usually applied to ships, and probably meaning sailing or floating away 

 (Wright). 



- Compare — 



" The laverock and the lark, The baukie and the bat, 

 The heather-bleet, the miresnipe. How mony birds be that ?" 



— CnxUBKRS, Popular Rhymes of Scotland {&d.. 1870), 198. 



