234 J. Scully — On the Chiroptera of Nepal. [No. 3, 



adjoining plains of India, but most of it is highly mountainous, and 

 in it, indeed, is found the highest mountain in the world. The Nepal 

 Valley, the true " Nepal " of the natives, is a small tract, some 20 

 miles in length by 15 in breadth, at an elevation of from 4050 to 

 4500 feet above sea-level, in which is situated the capital of the state, 

 Kathmandu. But the Nepal Valley is the only part of the state 

 which has been efficiently explored zoologically, and, consequently, we 

 may be pretty certain that, when the term Nepal only is used to denote 

 the station of a species, the Nepal Valley is what is really meant. 



I once lived for two years in the Nepal Valley, and while there 

 made large collections of zoological specimens. Amongst these, I pre- 

 served 40 specimens of bats, and, on my return to England, I spent some 

 time on a careful identification of them, by reference to published de- 

 scriptions and by comparison with specimens in the British Museum. 

 In this way, I ascertained that the whole of my specimens were referable 

 to only 10 species, and the next step was to find out whether the forms 

 I had secured were previously known to occur in Nepal. This task 

 proved much more difficult than the mere identification of the species ; 

 the information available about the species of Chiroptera actually in- 

 habiting Nepal being somewhat vague and confused. 



In order to show why the matter lacks precision, it is necessary to 

 trace the source of our information on the subject. 



Mr. Brian H. Hodgson, to whose labours zoological science is so 

 largely indebted, lived for more than twenty years in the Nepal Valley ; 

 and during this time he made very extensive zoological collections, and 

 described many new forms. He discriminated altogether twelve species 

 of bats from Nepal, and to every one of these he gave a new scientific 

 name. Unfortunately, however, he did not describe all the species 

 whose names he published, and some of the descriptions he gave were 

 not sufficiently full to fix the species intended without doubt. Mr. 

 Hodgson presented most of his specimens from Nepal to the British 

 Museum, and he also gave a few to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. This 

 led to Dr. J. E. Gray and Mr. Ed. Blyth identifying some of Hodgson's 

 species with others previously named by different authors, and in some 

 cases to more extended description of the Nepalese specimens. Some 

 doubt and error were in this way introduced, as will be explained fur- 

 ther on ; the doubt hanging over the species named by Mr. Hodgson but 

 never described by him. 



Mr. Hodgson left Nepal in 1844. He never returned to that 

 country, but, after a visit to England, he settled for some years at Dar- 

 jiling, in the Sikkim Himalayas east of Nepal, and collected zoological 

 specimens there largely. These spoils he also gave to the British 



