of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat. 385 



In tlie * Mcmoires de la Soci<jt(i zoologique de France ' 

 (1907, pp. 21-22) M. C'liarles Mottaz, Geneva, records the 

 results of an examination of 169 specimens of the Lesser 

 Horseshoe (presumably obtained at or near the ]jlace where he 

 lives or somewhere else in Switzerland, though this is not stated 

 in his j)aj)er) as follows :-^" Jusqu'ici le resultat de cette etude 

 nous laisse perplexe et ne saurait nous convaincre de la validitc 

 de lasous-esp^ce minimus. En efFet, sur 169 sujets actuelle- 

 ment entre nos mains, mesures et scrupuleusement Studies, 

 nous avons dH constater que : P. Ceux qui r(5pondaient aux 

 caractferes du minimus ou qui pouvait etre taxes d'interm^- 

 diaires dtaient tous, jeunes [sic] et vieux, des c? • 2°. Ceux qui 

 furent classes hipposideros etaient tous, jeunes [sic] et vieux, 

 des ? . Que conclure? Y a-t-il coincidence fortuite, ou plutot 

 la difference signage serait-elle seulemcTit une question de 

 sexe? .... Pour I'instant nous ne saurions enregistrer defini- 

 tivement le Rh. hipposideros minimus dans notre faune Suisse 

 ni admettre la validitc de cette sous-espt^ce tout au moins 

 pour ce qui concerne les represcntants de notre region." — In 

 a few words : M. Mottaz has come to the conclusion that what 

 1 have taken to be a difference between a southern and northern 

 form of this bat is, in reality, at least in Switzerland, a sexual 

 difference only. 



Although it must be granted, I think, that in committing 

 a mistake of such kind as suggested by M. Mottaz I should 

 have made n)yself guilty of an almost unthinkable carelessness 

 (a quality of which, 1 hope, my zoological papers do not in 

 other respects bear too abundant witness), and at the same 

 time been singularly unfortunate in having had before me 

 from the whole area inhabited by minimus males only, and 

 from the whole area of hipposiderus females only ; although 

 M. Mottaz, in dealing with a question of size in a series of 

 individuals, does not give any measurements at all to enable 

 the reader to control the correctness of his results ; although 

 ]\i. IMottaz, in discussing a question for the decision of which 

 it is of the highest importance to know the exact jjlaces ia 

 •which he obtained the individuals examined, does not give a 

 single locality (thoy were " rccueilli .... partout," is the 

 only information given, so that it caiuiot even be seen with 

 certainty whether they were obtained " partout" in Switzer- 

 land or "partout" in Eurojje generally); although, there- 

 fore, his two " conclusions," as given in his paper, are merely 

 postulates not supported by a single fact or figure ; although 

 the insertion of the word "jeunes " in both of his conclusions 

 admits of one explanation only, viz. that M. Mottaz lacks 

 the necessary training in dealing with questions of this 



