192 VESPERTILIONID^— PLECOTUS 



ears extending, when laid forward, only just beyond the tip of 

 the muzzle ; shorter and roundly triangular, not sickle-shaped, 

 tragus reaching not more than half the height of the ear ; and a 

 very small middle upper premolar lying in a position completely 

 interior to the tooth-line.] 



Genus PLECOTUS. 



1816. Macrotus, W. E. Leach, Systematic Catalogue of the Specimens of the Indi- 

 genous Mammalia and Birds that are Preserved in the British Museum, i ; based 

 on Macrotus europceus of Leach, the " European Longear," from Devonshire, Eng- 

 land, presented by G. Montagu ; named, but without description, hence Plecotus 

 has priority. 



1818. Plecotus, Etienne Geoffroy, Description des Mammiferes qui se trouvent en 

 Egypie, ii., 112, 118-119, pi. ii.. No. 3 (for date see Sherbom, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 (London), 1897, 287-288 ; based on toreillard of Daubenton, la barbastelle, and 

 an undescribed species from Timor. 



1829. Plecautus, Frangois Cuvier, in Dictionnaire de Sciences Naturelles, lix., 415, a 

 misprint for Plecotus; no species mentioned. 



This genus, although small in known species, has a wide 

 distribution, mainly in the Palaearctic region, where it ranges 

 from Ireland to Sakhalin, and from about 60° north latitude in 

 Skandinavia to north Africa. There is one British representa- 

 tive, the well-known P. auritus. P. puck, which I described 

 from Murree, northern India, differs in cranial characters, while 

 my P. teneriffcB, from Teneriffe, is larger, having the fore- 

 arm measuring about 44 mm. (see Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 December 1907, 520-521); G. M. Allen's P. sacrimontis, from 

 Mt. Fusi-Yama, Japan, has a long thumb (117 mm.). Several 

 other specific names have been instituted, but are of unknown 

 value. They are mentioned below on p. 195. In North 

 America it is represented by the closely allied Corynorhinus, 

 differing in the shape of the nostril, conspicuously glandular 

 muzzle, and in the proportions of the wing. 



Generic characters :— These are bats of medium size, with 

 immense ears (Plate XIV., Fig. 4), meeting by their inner 

 margins on top of the head, the outer margins terminating 

 just behind the angles of the mouth. The tragus is large and 

 elongated. 



The muzzle bears the elongated, narrowly crescentic nostrils 



