BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



CHEIEOPTEEA BATS. 



Family, Vespertilionid^.* — Genus, Vespertilio. 



Generic Character. — Cutting teeth | ; grinders variable ;t nostrils without 

 foliaceous appendages ; ears at most very little longer, sometimes shorter, 

 than the head, not united at the base. 



The genus Vespertilio, restricted as it now is by the 

 necessary dismemberment of the large group which was 

 formerly comprehended under this term, still retains a 

 considerable number of species, of which no less than 

 ten are natives of this country, besides one species 

 of Plecotus, one of Barbastellus, and two of Rhinolophus, 

 making in all fourteen species of the order. 



The investigations of Kuhl, a young and enterprising 

 German naturalist, whose premature death disappointed 

 the high expectations which his almost precocious 

 acquirements and his excellent general views in zoolo- 

 gical science had deservedly raised, had thrown much 

 light upon the Bats of his own country ;| and, as 



* Insectivorous Bats, without nasal appendages. 



+ It is the false (jrinders only that varyin their number in the different 

 species ; the true grinders being always i|:^. 



X "Die Deutschen Fledermiiuse, von Heinr. Kuhl." Neue Wetter. An- 

 n:il. I. F.d. 



B 



