112 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE PHYLLOSTOMID.E. [Feb. 27, 



the opinion that I formed when I published my paper on the " Ge- 

 nera of Bats " in the 'Magazine of Zoology and Botany' in 1837, 

 more especially as the use of these warts to distinguish the groups 

 and species was a source of considerable amusement to my zoological 

 associates. Yet the genera now used are in several instances only 

 names given to the sections that I proposed in 1837. 



Dr. Peters, in his paper, has described one or two genera, or 

 rather subgenera, that are not in the Museum Collection. They 

 are marked with an asterisk in this table. 



Mr. Tomes and Dr. Peters have divided the family into a few 

 genera, each containing several subgenera. This seems to me to ne- 

 cessitate the use of three names when only two are enough ; and several 

 of the forms which they have regarded as only subgenera seem to 

 me (and this is particularly the case as regards Dr. Peters) to be 

 deserving of a higher position according to their own theory of no- 

 menclature. I have therefore been induced to publish the arrange- 

 ment here given, the tribes occupying the places which these zoolo- 

 gists give to genera, and showing, by making the groups tribes, where 

 I think they have overlooked the importance of certain forms. 



The colour of the fur in some species, and perhaps in most, seems 

 to be of little importance for their distinction. I have found it the 

 same in the Horseshoe Bats. There are in the British Museum spe- 

 cimens of the large Fer de Lance of Brazil (Phyllostoma hastatum) 

 entirely sooty black, black above, and more or less blackish grey or 

 grey beneath, reddish brown above and more or less pale beneath, 

 and bright red bay above and beneath. These different colours are 

 not confined to specimens of one sex. Other species also vary, but 

 the Museum specimens do not show so large a series of differences. 

 This may arise from the fact that we have not so many specimens 

 of other kinds, the Fer de Lance being a large and conspicuous Bat, 

 and therefore collected and sent home by many persons. 



In skinning Bats the tail is often entirely, and sometimes partially 

 withdrawn from the skin, and sometimes even the skin of it with- 

 drawn into the body. In drying the skin the position of the wings 

 on the feet or ankles is often altered, being either drawn down too 

 low or pulled up too high, and sometimes even the form of the nose- 

 leaf is changed. Several species, and even some genera, have been 

 described from specimens so altered. 



Synopsis of Genera. 



Section I. Nostrils in the front of a disk which is expanded behind 

 into an erect, free, lanceolate leaf. 



Subsection 1. Head elongate; margin of the lips entire. True 

 grinders 3/3, the hinder well developed, short, transverse {ex- 

 cept in Carollia); premolars 2/2 or 1/2. 



A. Tongue moderate, fat, smooth on the sides, and with a group of 

 recurved spines in the middle of the front part ; lower cutting- 

 teeth in a continuous series. 



