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 Vespertilionidce have the widest range of any of the 

 families of bats, the Emballonuridce being next in order of ex- 

 tent. The Pteropodidce are found in the Ethiopian, Oriental 

 and Australian regions, the Malay Archipelago being, perhaps, 

 the central point. 



The Rhinolophidce 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. 



Linnseus 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- 

 rotus californicus of Baird, which occurs in California, south- 

 ward. The N'octilionidce are represented by a Mexican species, 

 Nyctinomus nasutus. 



Several genera of the Family Vespertilionidce occur as 

 follows: 



