Biblioyriqjhical }iutice. 2G7 



Ptcropidac as indicating a connexion witli the Vespcrtilioniue alliance, 

 seeing that its structure appears to be an extreme modification of 

 the whorled arninfiement of the scales. The amount of shifting of 

 genera caused liy the adoi)tion of the new principles of arrangement 

 is very small, the most important change being the transfer of the 

 subfamily ^Mormopes, Peters, to the rhyllostomidae. 



It is as a contribution to what wo hope one day to see him 

 cora])letc, namely a " Species Chiropterorum," that Mr. Dobson's 

 present work will be welcome to zoologists. ' Taking the Asiatic 

 region to include the whole of that continent with its islands as far 

 east as Mr. Wallace's boundary-line between the oriental and 

 Australian regions, Mr. Dobson's descriptions, as he himself indi- 

 cates, include, besides the Asiatic liats, nearly all those of Europe ; 

 indeed, although the province as marked out does not possess four 

 species of European Bats, he has added descriptions of these in 

 footnotes, with the object of making his work a complete treatise on 

 the European and Asiatic Chii-optera. "We should have been glad, 

 and we think he would have greatly increased the value of his work 

 without a corresponding augmentation of his labour, had he included 

 in it the Chiroptera of the whole Eastern archipelago ; for the line 

 taken as his eastern boundary, however good with respect to strictly 

 terrestrial animals, does not seem to hold in the case of such crea- 

 tures as the Bats, in connexion with which the term " Jlastern 

 archipelii^o " is still geographically admissible, and Mr. Wallace's 

 line, however true in general, beoomes an arbitrary boundary. In 

 many i)laces throughout the work a little more detail with respect to 

 the geographical distribution of the species beyond the limits covered 

 by the author, and in the sj-nonymy of the species (without at- 

 tempting to rival the elaborateness of Fitzinger's wonderful com- 

 pilations), and especially in the way of references to figures, would 

 be of advantage to the student. We may notice also the omission 

 of the table of genera of the family Emballonunda?. 



The illustrations consist chiefly of woodcut figures of the heads 

 and ears of the species in certain difficult groups ; and they^ will be 

 found especially valuable in the case of the Leaf-nosed Bats, the 

 structure of the nasal appendages in which it is often almost im- 

 possible to describe intelligibly. A few skulls and teeth are also 

 figured. 



The ('atali)gue of the Chiroptera in the Indian ^ruscura at Cal- 

 cutta is really a systematic list of the Asiatic species of the order, 

 with the addition of those species from beyond the hmits of Asia, as 

 laid down in the present work, of which specimens exist in that 

 collection. It gives in parallel columns the number of specimens of 

 each species, their origin and condition, with remarks upon any 

 peculiarities displayed by the individual specimens. 



Mr. Dobson's excellent little book, which is published by order 

 of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, may, we believe, bo obtained 

 from Messrs. Triibner «S: Co. 



