1887.] J. Scully — On the Cliiroptera of Nepal. 



somewhst leisurely over the surface of the crops and grass " (P. Z. S. 

 1872, p. 712). 



15. Vespektilio kipalensis. 



Vespertilio pallidiventris, Hodgson, Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. vol. ir, p. 286 (1844), 

 (name only) ; Gray, Cat. Hodgson's Collect. Brit, Mns. p. 4 (1846) (not described). 



Vespertilio pallidiv enter, Gray, Cat. Hodgson's Collect. Brit. Mus. 2nd Ed. p. 2 

 (1863) (name only). 



Vespertilio nipalensis, Dobson, Proc. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 1871, p. 214; Mon. Asiat. 

 Chir. p. 141 (1876) ; Cat. Chir, Brit. Mus. p. 302 (1878). 



The name Vespertilio pallidiventris first occurs in a list of the 

 mammals of Nepal by Mr. Hodgson, published in the ' Calcutta Journal 

 of Natural History ' in 1844. Although the name given by Mr. Hodgson 

 to this Nepalese species of bat appears in several lists subsequent to 

 that date, he never gave any description of the animal. As he did not 

 present any examples of it to the British Museum or the Asiatic Society, 

 I imagine that he only obtained one specimen, which must have been 

 lost, somehow, after it was figured. There is a well executed figure of 

 V. pallidiventris in the collection of plates of Mammals of Nepal pre- 

 sented by Mr. Hodgson to the Zoological Society of London. 



In 1871, a collector of the Indian Museum obtained a bat in 

 Kathmandu, which Dr. Dobson described as a new species under the 

 name of V. nipalensis, the type and only known specimen being an adult 

 female example, preserved in spirit, and now in the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta. I have carefully examined Hodgson's original plate of V. 

 pallidiventris, with Dr. Dobson's description and figure of V. nipalensis 

 before me, and, so far as any conclusion can be arrived at on such data, 

 I believe that both these names apply to the same species. The plate 

 of V. pallidiventris represents a true Vespertilio, as evidenced by the 

 {^hape of the ear and by the narrow, acutely pointed tragus ; and the 

 whole lower surface of the animal is coloured pure white. This white 

 colour of the under-parts is perhaps the most marked feature in F. 

 nipalensis. And, Dr. Dobson's type specimen having come from the 

 very place where Mr. Hodgson obtained his V. pallidive^itris, there can 

 be no reasonable doubt about Hodgson's title having priority. But as 

 the latter naturalist never defined his species by any description how- 

 ever short, or was helped to a definition by any writer before the name 

 V. nipalensis was published, V. pallidiventris must be regarded as a 

 synonym merely, under the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature. 



Nothing is recorded about the habits of V. nipalensis. It appears 



