242 BULLETIN 57, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



18.38. VcxpertUionidw (part; Noctilionina, part) Gray, Mag. Zool. Bot, II, 



p. 498, December, 1838. 

 1855. [Vespertilionidw} " Vespertilionides " (part; Molossina) Gervais, 



Exped. du Oomte de Castelnau, Zool., Mamrn., p. 52. 



1865. Molossi Peters, Monatsber, k. preuss. Akad. Wissenscb., Berlin, p. 258. 



1866. Noetilionidw (part; Molossina) Gray, Aim. and Mag. Nat. Hist, 3d 

 ser., XVII, p. 92, February, I860. 



1870. Tespertiliones (part; iJolossl) Fitzinger, Sitz.-Ber. k. Akad. Wissen- 

 scb., Wien, Math. Naturwiss. Classe, LXI, Abth. I, p. 458. 



1872. Molossidw Gill, Arrangement of tbe Families of Mammals, p. 17. 



1875. Emoallonuridw (part; Molossina-, part, Molossi) Dobson, Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., XVI, p. 349, November, 1875. 



1878. Emoallonuridw (part; Molossina:,, part, Molossi) Dobson, Catal. 

 Chiropt. Brit. Mus., p. 402. 



1886. Molossidw Gill, Standard Natural History, V, p. 170. 



1889. Oymnuridw Ameghino, Actas de la Acad. Nac. de Ciencias de la Rep. 

 Argentina en Cordoba, VI, p. 351. 



1891. Emoallonuridw (part: Molossinw, part, Molossine division) Flower 

 and Lydekker, Mammals living and extinct, p. <><;!). 



1892. Vespertilionidw (part; Molossini. part) Winge, Jordfundne og nu- 

 levende Flagermus (Chiroptera) fra Lagoa Santa, Minas Geraes, Bra- 

 silien, p. 24. 



1894. Vespertilionidw (part; Molossi) H. Allen, Monogr. Bats. N. Am. 

 (1893), p. 162, March 14, 1894. 



Geographic distribution. — Warmer portions of both hemispheres; 

 in the old world north to southern Europe and southern Asia, east to 

 New Guinea, Australia, and Norfolk Island; in America north to 

 the southern United States and throughout the West Indies. 



Characters. — Humerus with trochiter much larger than trochin, 

 the discrepancy in size usually more noticeable than in the Vesper- 

 tilionidse, trochin articulating with scapula by a surface nearly as 

 large as glenoid fossa, epitrochlea short, but with very conspicuous 

 spinous process, capitellum almost directly in line with nearly 

 straight shaft; ulna less reduced than in the Vespertilionidse, the 

 very slender shaft usually about half as long as radius ; second finger 

 with well-developed metacarpal and one rudimentary phalanx ; third 

 finger with three phalanges, of which the first is flexed on upper side 

 of metacarpal when wing is at rest, and third is cartilaginous except 

 occasionally at extreme base, where distinct joint is formed with 

 middle phalanx; fifth finger scarcely longer than metacarpal of first; 

 shoulder girdle normal (Plate XIV, fig. 1), except that seventh 

 cervical vertebra is fused with first dorsal ; foot short and broad, but 

 of normal structure; fibula complete, bowed outward from tibia, its 

 diameter about half that of latter, entering conspicuously into 

 mechanical scheme of the short, stout leg (Plate XIV, fig. 2) ; pelvis 

 (Plate XIV, figs. 3-5) normal, the boundaries of the sacral vertebrae 

 clearly defined ; lumbar vertebrae not anchylosed ; skull without post- 



