ALLEN: BATS OF THE GENUS CORYNORHINUS. 337 
Virginia. Among mammals, he lists “ Bats, as I remember, at least 
two sorts; one a large sort with Long Ears, and particularly long 
straggling Hairs; the other much like the English, something larger, 
I think, very Common.”’ The long ears of the first sort may perhaps 
identify it with Corynorhinus; the other was possibly an Eptesicus. 
It was not until 1818, however, that the naturalist Rafinesque named 
and briefly described Vespertilio megalotis from a specimen captured 
somewhere on “the lower parts of the Ohio”’ River, the Wabash, or 
the Green River, perhaps in Indiana. His name, which I think must 
hold for a bat of this genus, has been generally ignored in favor of 
LeConte’s later name Plecotus macrotis based probably on specimens 
from Georgia. A study of the large number of skins which I have 
been able to assemble from many parts of the range of the genus shows, 
rather unexpectedly, that the bat of the eastern United States west of 
the Alleghenies is quite different from the dark brown, white-bellied 
animal of the south Atlantic and Gulf States, to which the name 
macrotis strictly applies. In the species inhabiting the interior and 
western parts of the United States, the contrast in color between the 
tips and the bases of the hairs of both surfaces is not abrupt as in 
macrotis but passes imperceptibly from a dark base to a differently 
colored tip, nor are the hairs of the lower surface tipped with pure 
white. To this species, Rafinesque’s name must apply. West of the 
Mississippi, this species gradually becomes paler, and over the Rocky 
Mountain area and the Southwest is a dull buffy color. To this race 
of megalotis, Miller’s (1897) name pallescens applies. On the humid 
northwest coast, a gradual darkening takes place, and a strongly 
marked subspecies is again recognizable, to which the name townsendia 
was given by Cooper in 1837. On the Mexican tableland, the same 
type of bat is found, but of a dark smoky hue and slightly reduced 
proportions, which I here describe as new. Apparently the white- 
bellied Corynorhinus macrotis of the Atlantic slope and Gulf States 
as far west at least as Louisiana, does not intergrade with the differ- 
ently colored representatives to the West, and I am therefore provi- 
sionally regarding it as a distinct species. Still a third species, with 
very large and differently formed ears and peculiar skull is represented 
by a single specimen from central Mexico, and has remained hitherto 
undescribed. The brief synonymy given under each name in the 
descriptions which follow, indicates sufficiently the opinions of previous 
writers as to the nomenclature of this genus. 
