30 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



In this connection it may be surmised that the present 

 sporadic distribution of this genus in the West Indies, with one 

 living form on Dominica, one in Hispaniola, and a third prob- 

 ably recently extinct in Cuba, implies that it may once have 

 been more widespread over this area and has already died out 

 on other islands. Of this, however, there is at present no 

 evidence. The other related genera, too, may be thought of as 

 in a restricted situation. The little Nyctiellus, one of the 

 smallest of bats, and formerly believed to be confined to Cuba 

 and the Isle of Pines, has in late years been found in numbers 

 in some of the Bahamas (G. M. Allen and Sanborn, 1937) and 

 is probably in no present danger. The somewhat larger 

 Chilonatalus is found, in several closely allied races, on Cuba, 

 Jamaica, the Bahamas, and on Old Providence Island, dwelling 

 in caves. Wherever its small colonies exist it does not seem 

 especially difficult to find and may be fairly safe for the present, 

 since it is insectivorous like the others of the family, and there 

 would seem to be no lack of sustenance for it. Of the genus 

 Phodotes, a close relative of Natalus, practically nothing is 

 known beyond Miller's original description based on a speci- 

 men from the island of Curagao, off the coast of Venezuela. 

 If, as supposed, it is peculiar to that island, its future status 

 may well be somewhat precarious on account of changes taking 

 place with intensive cultivation. 



Family VESPERTILIONIDAE : Simple-nosed Bats 

 SPOTTED BAT; "DEATH'S-HEAD BAT" 



EUDERMA MACULATUM (J. A. Allen) 



Histiotus maculaius J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 3, p. 195, 1891 

 (near Piru, Ventura County, California, probably at mouth of Castac Creek). 



FIGS.: Miller, 1897a, pi. 1, fig. 11 (ear); pi. 3, fig. 3 (wing); 1907, p. 226, fig. 37 (skull); 

 Bailey, V., 1931, pi. 21, B; Grinnell, H. W., 1918, pi. 16, fig. 9 (photograph). 



For 12 years after its first discovery in Ventura County, 

 Calif., this bat remained unique; then a second one was found 

 in the biological laboratory of the College of Agriculture and 

 Mechanic Arts at Mesilla Park, N. Mex. Since that time only 

 six additional specimens have been discovered, all in the South- 

 western United States. This apparent rarity has led to the 

 belief that the species is actually a waning one, and for this 

 reason it is here included. 



