172 TESPERTlLIONIDJi?. 



Dentition. Inc. ^, c. J-^, pm. ^, m. |^. 



Upper incisors unicuspidate and close to the canines. 



(For general description of skeleton see p. 173.) 



Range. The Australian Region (except New Zealand). 



The fleshy disk behind the small nose-leaf in this genus is evi- 

 dently formed by the union of the greatly enlarged glandular emi- 

 nences which in every species of the family are more or less de- 

 veloped. The different stages of development may be traced through 

 Plecotus and Corinorhinus. The enlarged glands rising slightly 

 above the outer margins of the grooves behind the nasal apertures 

 in Plecotus are so greatly enlarged in the closely allied subgenus 

 Corinorhinus as, in many individuals, to meet by their inner and 

 superior margins in the centre (see Plate XI. figs. 8 & 9). The 

 line of union is still indicated in Nyctojphilus by a narrow longi- 

 tudinal groove on the upper and anterior surface of the fleshy emi- 

 nence on the muzzle (Plate XI. fig. 7). 



The single species on which this genus is founded evidently takes 

 the place of Plecotus auritus in the Australian Region. Mr. Tomes 

 has described four species, distinguishing them principally by size, 

 by the greater or lesser development of the bony ridges of the skidl, 

 and by the colour of the fur ; but these differences appear to me to 

 depend chiefly upon age and locality, and do not seem of sufficient 

 importance to warrant separation into distinct species. 



1. Nyctophilus timoriensis. 



Vespertilio timoriensis, Geoffrey, Ann. du MtcsSum, viii. p. 200(1806) ; 



Temminck, Monogr. Mammal, ii. p. 253 (1835-41). 

 Nyctophilus geoffroyi, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 73 (1822) ; 



Temminck, I.e. p. 47, pi. 34; Wagner, Suppl. Schreh. Sdugeth. v. 



p. 649(1855). 

 Nyctophilus geoffroyi, timoriensis, gouldi, unicolor, Tomes, P. Z. S. 



1858, pp. 29-37. 



Ears large, oval, longer than the head, similar to those of Plecotus 

 auritus in shape but proportionately smaller, and connected by a 

 much deeper band on the forehead, and the concave surface of the 

 conch is marked by numerous parallel horizontal lines ; the inner 

 side of the ear is in the form of an isosceles triangle with a broad 

 base, half the inner margin slopes forwards and upwards, the other 

 half upwards and backwards, the tip rounded ofi^, the upper third of 

 the outer margin straight, sloping outwards, becoming convex in 

 lower two thirds, and terminating in a wart placed close to the 

 angle of the mouth ; the broad band connecting the ears extends 

 upwards on each side as far as the middle of . their inner margins ; 

 tragus rather short, triangular, subacute, the inner and outer mar- 

 gins convex, at the junction of the upper and middle third of the 

 outer margin a small blunt thickened elevation behind, at the base 

 a small lobe. The glandular elevation behind the short nose-leaf, in 

 the front of which the nostrils open, is grooved in the centre by a 



