550 Reviews. [July, 



and forty bats were destroyed in the main building. Their bodies 

 were used as manure, but it required a term of five years to remove 

 the very disagreeable odour that pervaded the building which they 

 had inhabited in such numbers, and this was only effected by a 

 copious use of disinfectants, and a thorough and prolonged ventilation 

 of their holes. 



Dr. Allen's memoir is an unpretending volume, published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and is designed to exhibit the present state of 

 knowledge of the Bats found in America, north of Mexico. It is 

 based principally on the specimens in the museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, although the collections of the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, and of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 at Cambridge, Mass., have also been consulted. The work is illus- 

 trated with woodcuts, representing the head, and the skull, and teeth 

 of each species, with enlarged figures of the ear, and generally 

 also the form of the interfemoral membrane ; and which contain 

 therefore everything necessary for identification. The number of 

 species described is not great, and does not exceed those known as 

 inhabiting Britain, though of course the species are distinct. The 

 twenty species are arranged in eight genera, of which only one, 

 Macrotus (Californicus), possesses an upright appendage upon the 

 nose ; the genera Nyctinomus, Nycticejus, and Antrozous, contain 

 each one species ; Synotus, two ; Lasiurus, three ; Scotophilus, five ; 

 and Vespertilio, six species. There is but little which here calls 

 for remark in regard to any particular species, inasmuch as they are 

 scarcely so varied in their forms as those found in Britain ; and in- 

 formation as to their habits is almost entirely wanting. The genus 

 Synotus is chiefly noticeable for the enormous development of the 

 ears, and the species Nyctinomus nasutus for its extraordinary 

 geographical range, the author being confirmed by Mr. Tomes, as to the 

 identity of the species in individuals taken in South America, Central 

 America, South Carolina, and Hayti. The common American species 

 appears to be the red bat (Lasiurus noveboracensis), which is univer- 

 sally distributed throughout the temperate regions in North America, 

 and is moderately abundant. It has long and silky fur of a russet- 

 red colour; fawn, fawn-red, and yellowish-cinereous varieties being 

 met with — differences of hue which are chiefly owing to the colora- 

 tion of the tips of the hair. 



From the references which are given to the specimens contained 

 in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, it would appear that 

 all the twenty species described are well represented in that collec- 

 tion, and none (except Vespertilio affinis) are represented by only a 

 single specimen. This is a new species, only once taken in Arkansas, 

 and named by Dr. Allen. We should imagine it to be highly pro- 

 bable that the list of North American bats will, in course of time, be 

 considerably augmented by new discoveries, and it seems not impro- 

 bable that some of the various species described by Eafinesque, 

 Leconte, De Beauvais, Temminck, Say, Audubon, &c, and referred to 

 in the Appendix, may hereafter be rediscovered, and found to be 

 distinct from any contained in the collections. 



