422 Mr. O. TI, 



XLVII. — On some Anstralasian Mammals. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



The Nomenclature of the Tioo Bats of New Zealand. 



In 1889*, taking Dobson''s synonymies and identifications of 

 the two bats found in New Zealand as correct, I amended^ on 

 a purely nomenclatural point, the names he gave to them in 

 his Catalogue, showing tliat on his data tuherculatus was to 

 be used for the Mystacops and morio for tlie Chalinolohus. 



But it has been pointed out to me by my American friends 

 Messrs. Palmer and Miller tliat there is an earlier work, most 

 pertinent to the subject, not quoted by Dobson at all, and 

 therefore ignored by me, and this upsets the conclusions I 

 came to. Moreover, Dobson's identification of the New 

 Zealand Chalinolohus with one from Australia ])roves to be 

 quite incorrect, the former being perfectly distinct from any 

 occurring on the mainland. This frees the New Zealand bat 

 from the competition of the earliest name of all, morio^ Grray, 

 1841 (type locality Tasmania f). 



The relations to C. morio of the respective owners of the 

 names microdon^ Tomes, 1859 (South Australia), and signifery 

 Dobson (Queensland), may be left for further material to 

 elucidate, iDut all three are different from the New Zealand 

 Chalinoluhus, whose skull has a much longer and heavier 

 muzzle than any of them. 



* Ann. & Map-. Nat. Hist. (6) iv. p. 462. 



t In Grey's ' Journals of Expeditions,' Appendix, ii. p. 405. The con- 

 fusion in Gray's account of his three species of " Scotophilus'^ (S. morio, 

 Goitldi, and austraiis) is very great and almost defies elucidation, though 

 the fault may have been as much the printer's as the author's. Among- 

 other things the measurements given as those of ;S'. viorio are evidently 

 those properly belonging to <S'. Gouldi. As a preliminary step towards 

 clearing the matter up, I have gone carefully over the specimens which 

 ■were before Gray at the time, over his notes in the registers and in his 

 MS. list of bats, the basis of the published list of 1843. In this way I 

 have identified no. 37. 4. 8. 118 (" 90. a ") (Dob.son's Chalinolohus tiihercu- 

 Uiius, e, not/ as he stated), from Tasmania, coll. Sir W. J. Hooker, as the 

 type of S. morio, wliile no. 41. 1516 ('* 118. a ") e of Dobson's C. Gouldi 

 should be taken a? the type of the latter species. It wfus from Launceston, 

 Tasmania, Gould collection, not, as Dobson says, from Lieut. A. Smith, 

 who.se specimens came in twenty years later. 



Dobson's " R. Maitland, Esq.," the donor of specimen h, also proves to 

 be the liiver Maitland, Iv'ew South Wales, its locality. 



I can identify no i', dividual type of S. austraiis, which is, however, 

 evidentlv a svuonvm of morin. 



