THE LESSER HORSESHOE BAT 251 



18&7. Rhinolophus hipposideros var. troglophilus, Daday Jeno, Ertekeshek 



A Termhzettudomdnyok Kdr^ol (Budapest), xvi., Nos. 7, 8, pi., figs, i and 2, 1886 ; 



described from Kis-Nyires, Transsylvania. 

 1891. Rhinolophus hipposiderus, Blandford ; Flower and Lyddeker ; Johnston. 

 1905. Rhinolophus euryale helvetica, K. Bretscher, Vierteljahrsschrift der 



Naturforschenden Gesellschaft (Zurich), xlix., 256, 1904 ; thus identified by 



Andersen. 

 1905. Rhinolophus hipposiderus minutus, Knud Andersen, Proc. Zool. Soc. 



(London), 17th October, 142 ; Trouessart (1910). 



Synonymy: — The Lesser Horseshoe Bat was first recognised as 

 distinct on paper by J. F. Gmelin in 1788, and was formally named 

 by Bechstein in 1797. It was discovered in Britain by Montagu, who 

 wrote an elaborate paper describing its specific characters. The name 

 which he proposed for it — Vespertilio minutus — is antedated as applied 

 to the species as a whole by Bechstein's hipposideros : having been 

 based, however, upon English specimens, it is available for the British 

 race as differentiated by Andersen (see Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 Dec. 1 90s, 648-662; and Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), 17th October 

 190S, 142). 



A curious instance of the possibilities resulting from strict adher- 

 ence to rules of nomenclature suggests itself by Gmelin's use of the 

 words major and minor. He clearly did not intend to apply them sub- 

 specifically as such, but, writing in Latin, he used the words descriptively. 

 Nevertheless, strict adherence to rule might conceivably disregard his 

 intentions, and, considering only the form of what he wrote, assign 

 these names to the two bats which he had in view. In that case 

 Rhinolophus major would become a synonym of R. ferrum-equinum, but 

 hipposideros would give place to minor. I find no rule governing this 

 instance laid down in any code of nomenclature, and, until such rule be 

 made, I shall not venture to adopt an alteration so inconvenient. 



Distribution: — R. hipposideros ranges from Ireland to Gilgit, and 

 from the Baltic to Sennaar, Africa. It ascends the warm valleys of the 

 Himalayas to at least 6000 feet in summer. It is divided by Andersen 

 into three closely allied sub-species, viz., Heuglin's minimus, inhabit- 

 ing the Mediterranean region, Egypt excepted, with the Balearics, Malta, 

 Corsica, and Crete, to Sennaar and Keran ; hipposiderus (sic) proper, of 

 central Europe north of the Balkans and Alps with Cyprus, through north- 

 west Persia and Armenia to the extreme north-west Himalayas ; and 

 Montagu's minutus, of the British Islands. The distribution in France, 

 as given by Rollinat and Trouessart {Mim. Soc. Zool de France, x., 125, 

 1897), may fitly be compared with the British. Although inhabiting 

 the whole country it becomes rarer in the north-east, but is very 

 common in the south-east, south, centre, and west. 



The British distribution of R. hipposideros repeats and amplifies the 



