S4 VESPERTILIONID^— NYCTALUS 



flies all night, they, in the words of Moffat, " cram themselves 

 to bursting-point, either once or twice in the twenty-four hours 

 during a 70-minutes' career of mad excitement among the 

 twilight-flying beetles and gnats." 



The genus is of wide distribution, having representatives allied 

 to iV. noctula — viz., in Japan, N. lasiopterus (Schreber), with the 

 forearm measuring 60 or more mm. ; central and south-eastern 

 Europe,^ N. maximus (Fatio), a mysterious giant of undetermined 

 status (see Mr Miller, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washington, 13th June 

 1900, 156), with the forearm of 68 mm, and remarkable skull; 

 Sumatra, N. sumatrana (Cuvier ^) ; China, N. plancyi (Gerbe) ; 

 the Himalayas, N. labiata (Hodgson) ; and Mozambique, 

 N. macuanus (Peters) ; the last four very little known. Allied 

 to N. leisleri are N. stenopterus (Dobson) of Borneo and 

 Malaysia, a very distinct dusky bat with the forearm of about 

 37 mm. ; my N. montanus, of the Himalayas, and N. verrucosus 

 (Bowdich), antedating my N. madeircs, of Madeira, of size 

 similar to leisleri, but with distinct crania ; and N. azoreum 

 (Thomas), of the Azores, a small form, with the forearm vary- 

 ing from 35-39 in males to from 39-41 mm. in females. 



The most nearly allied genera (see Winge, Jordftmdne og 

 nulevende Flagermaus {Chiropterd) fra Lagoa Santa, Minas 

 Geraes, Brasilien, in E. Museo Lundii, ii., i, Kopenhaven, 1893) 

 are Pipistrellus and Barbastellus, described below : Chalinobus, 

 of the Australian and Ethiopian regions, with fleshy lobule to 

 the lower lip ; Scotophilus, of the Ethiopian, Oriental, and 

 Australian regions, with only thirty teeth ; Harpyiocephalus, 

 of the Oriental region, with tubular nostrils ; the long-eared 

 Otonypteris, from N.E. Africa and the Himalayas; Nyctophilus, 

 with thirty teeth and small nose-leaf, from Australia ; Lasiurus, 

 of North and South America, with four mammse and hairy 

 interfemoral membrane ; and Antrozous, with remarkable 

 muzzle, and only four lower incisors, of North America. 



The generic characters are as follows : — The body is large 

 and heavily built. 



1 Not found in Switzerland recently (see Mottaz, Bull. Soc. Zool., Geneva, isth 

 Nov. igo8, 150. 



^ Stated to be of Cuvier, but I have not been able to find the original 

 description. 



