Quadrupeds. 4359 



he took considerable numbers at that time in some vaults under a mill, 

 where, he goes on to remark, it passes the winter. 



After this comes the account given by Professor Bell, in his ' His- 

 tory of British Mammalia, 1 taken from the original notice by Geoffroy, 

 with the observation that it is far from probable that it may prove to 

 be identical with the V. Daubentonii; but a skull of the latter, com- 

 pared with the figure of that part in the plate to the first notice of the 

 V. emarginatus, does not at all bear out this opinion. The figures 

 given by Professor Bell are good copies from Geoffroy. 



Proceeding chronologically, I come to a very detailed description 

 by the late Professor Macgillivray, in the volume of the ' Naturalists' 

 Library' dedicated to the History of British Quadrupeds, from a 

 specimen he had received from Winchester ; but he appears, at the 

 time of the publication of that work, not to have been aware that any 

 other description had been given, except those of Geoffroy and 

 Desmarest. 



During the following year (1839) appeared the valuable ' Etudes 

 de Micro-Mammalogie ' of Baron de Selys Longchamps, at the end 

 of which work is appended a methodical catalogue of all the European 

 Mammalia, with their synonyms, distribution, &c. : in this he includes 

 the V. emarginatus, and gives France, Germany and Italy as countries 

 where it is found, but omits England. 



In the year 1840 MM. Keyserling and Blasius published the first 

 part of their work on European Vertebrata, 'Die Wirbeltheire Eu- 

 ropas,' in which they refer the V. emarginatus of Geoffroy, Temminck 

 and Macgillivray, to V. mystacinus, and the V. emarginatus of Bona- 

 parte to V. Nattereri. 



During this year the first volume of Wagner's continuation of 

 Schreber's great work on Mammalia made its appearance, and in the 

 classified index this species is included as a doubtful one, but is en- 

 tirely omitted in the body of the work. 



The next notice I rind is in the i Faune Beige' of Baron de Selys 

 Longchamps, published in 1842. The author mentions having met 

 with it in the quarries at Maestrecht, where it passes the winter in the 

 roof of the Chateau de Vogelsanck, near to Hassell, and that it has 

 been found by M. Van Beneden at Lovain. De Selys appears to feel 

 quite sure that it is a perfectly distinct species, for after speaking of 

 the localities where it is found, he proceeds : — " It is singular that 

 MM. Keyserling and Blasius confound it with V. mystacinus ; it more 

 nearly resembles V. Nattereri; but it is distinct from these species by 



