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REPORT 1878. 



In considering the geographical distribution of each family of the 

 Chiroptera and the range of its genera and species, I think it well to 

 commence with the Vespertilionidas and EmballomiridsB, as these alone are 

 to any extent cosmopolitan in their distribution. 



Of the sixteen genera of Vespertilionidas five (Antrozous, Nycticejus, 

 Atalapha, Natalus and Thyroptera), are peculiar to America, but these are 

 represented by nine species only. Of the remaining eleven genera, eight 

 are peculiar to the Eastern hemisphere, and of these Nyctophilias and 

 Chalinolobus (subgen.) are limited to the Australian region ; Synotus, 

 Otonyderis, and Plecotus (subgen.) to the Patearctic. A second species 

 of Plecotus (the type of a well-defined subgenus Corinorhinus) is found in 

 the Nearctic region only. Two genera alone, Vesperugo and Vespertilio 

 are cosmopolitan ; but of the fifty species of the former, eleven only inhabit 

 America, and the few American species of the latter genus are closely 

 related to one another. A single species of Vespertilionidae — Vesperugo 

 serotinus — is alone known with certainty to extend into both hemispheres, 

 although it is probable that V. abramus and V. borealis may be found 

 hereafter to have as wide a distribution. 



Although the genera of Emballonuridaa are much more equally distri- 

 buted in number between the two hemispheres, half of the whole being 

 American, a single genus alone, Nyctinomus, is common to both, and it 

 is worthy of note that, of the twenty-one species of this genus, four only 

 inhabit America, and these are all closely related to one another, and very 

 far removed from any of the Old World species. Furia, Amorphocheilus, 

 Rhynchonycteris, Saccopteryx, Diclidurus, Noctilio, and Molossiis, repre- 

 sented by twenty-six species, are peculiar to the Neotropical region, while 

 the remaining genera with thirty-seven species are limited to the Eastern 

 hemisphere. Of these Mystacina with a single species is found in New 

 Zealand only. Colenra appears to be limited to East Africa and the 

 Malagasy subregion, but the species from these subregions are very 

 distinct. Emballonura extends from Madagascar to the Malay Archipelago, 

 and throughout the larger islands of the Polynesian subregion, but has 

 not been recorded from any part of the adjacent continents. 



The Neotropical genera of this family are, on the whole, more closely 

 related to each other than to any of the old world genera ; nevertheless 

 there are certain peculiar forms of limited distribution in the Eastern 

 hemisphere, which seem to have their nearest allies among neotropical 

 species. Thus, the very remarkable species,, Cheiromeles torquatus, which 

 has not been found beyond the Indo-Malayan subregion, appears to be 



