Mr. R. F. Tomes on the species of Lasiurus. 219 



p. 1 13 ; Godm. Amer. Nat. Hist. i. p. G8 ; Ilarl. Faun. Amer. p. 21 ; 

 Coop. Ann. Lye. N. II. New York, iv. p. 54. 



Scotophilus pruinosns, Gray, Maj^. Zool. and Bot. ii. p. 498, 1838. 



Nyctircjus pruinosus, Teinm. Mon. ii. p. 154, 1835-41 ; Wagu. 

 Supp. Schreib. i. p. 544 ; Schinz, Synop. Mam. i. 197. 



Lasiurus j)ruinosus. Gray, Cat. Mam. Brit. Mus. p. 32, 1843. 



Vespertilio cinereus, Palisot de Beauvois, Cat. Peale's Museum, 

 1796. 



It is not unusual to see the name of this species attached to speci- 

 mens of the former, an error not easy to commit, if actual comparison 

 of the two were made. The present one is greatly superior in size 

 to the last, and besides this, presents some other very distinctive 

 characters. 



The head is broad, and the forehead flat ; the muzzle is obtuse ; 

 the nostrils are surrounded by a well-defined rim, are directed sub- 

 laterally, and separated by a considerable interval, which is emar- 

 ginate. The ears are irregularly round, their front margins project- 

 ing considerably over the forehead. Their outer or hinder margins 

 are brought forward along the sides of the face in the shape of nar- 

 row prolongations, and terminate in two slightly projecting lobes 

 behind the corners of the mouth. The tragus appears to offer some 

 slight variations of form in different individuals, and even in the 

 same specimen I have, in one instance, observed it dissimilar in the 

 two ears. In its general form it resembles the same part in the last 

 species, but it is much less attenuated towards the tip, and the outer 

 margin has a less distinctly angular projection. At its base it is of 

 average width, from which it expands rather rapidly, and proceeds 

 outwards for the distance of about a line, when it takes an upward 

 direction, and becoming narrower, ends in a rounded tip. This 

 change of direction from horizontal to vertical leaves an angle at 

 its outer edge, which is nearly a right angle, whilst its inner edge 

 maintains a pretty regular concave line from the base to the tip. 

 In one instance, above alluded to, I have observed it in one ear only 

 of full breadth at the base, and gradually curving upwards and in- 

 wards, terminate in a rounded end, about half the breadth of the 

 base ; the tragus of the other ear being of the usual form. 



The membranes of the wings barely extend to the base of the toes. 

 The thumb is rather long, and has its terminal phalange twice the 

 length of the basal one. 



The fur of the forehead extends nearly to the end of the nose. 

 The sides of the face, and the muzzle, are moderately hairy, with a 

 tuft of stiffish hairs in front of the eye, and a black moustache frin- 

 ging the upper lip. The chin is nearly naked. A patch of fine, 

 short, adpressed hairs occupies the inside of the ear near its tip, and 

 the exposed surface of the tragus is similarly furnished. 



Seen from beneath, the whole of the autibrachial membrane is 

 covered with close downy hair of a yellowish colour, and fur of the 

 same kind extends from the side of the body along the membrane 

 beneath the arm and fore-arm, to the bases of the fingers, which, in 



