Quadrupeds. 4365 



cinus, V. Nattereri or V. Daubentonii. My own specimens are most 

 like the first of these, but differ remarkably in colour, and, as I once 

 thought, in the form of the ear; but I have recently received some 

 specimens of V. mystacinus, which were collected in Southern Russia, 

 which have the same kind of emargination to the ear ; and with regard 

 to the colour, I have since had an opportunity of examining two fe- 

 males of Vespertilio Leisleri, containing each a foetus, and these were 

 of an unusual pale reddish colour. All the specimens of the so-called 

 V. emarginatus I have captured have been females, containing a single 

 foetus. Prof. Macgillivray's description is so full that I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying his specimen was of the same species as mine. 



From the decided tone of the remarks made by Baron de Selys 

 Longchamps, and from the figures he gives to elucidate the European 

 species, we feel bound to believe that the species he speaks of is a 

 perfectly good one ; at any rate we cannot have a higher authority 

 for such an opinion. 



Before concluding I wish to call attention to what is really an 

 emarginated ear, and what is in reality only an appearance of such. 

 The ears of many species of bats are entire in their outline while in 

 a fresh condition, as in the Nattereri, but there is a certain portion of 

 the outer margin which is more membranous and less cartilaginous 

 than the rest, and this in drying occasions an indentation or notch, 

 which is evidently the case in the specimen represented by the Prince 

 of Canino : this, by simply moistening the ear, may at once be re- 

 moved, and the original form restored ; but in the specimens I re- 

 ceived from the Continent the notch is caused by the growth of a 

 well- developed rounded lobe at the base of the ear, and such is evi- 

 dently the case with the specimen from which the author of the ' Faune 

 Beige' took his figure. 



Should any of the readers of the f Zoologist ' meet with specimens 

 of Vespertilionidae which they feel doubt about identifying, I would 

 respectfully solicit the opportunity of examining them, and would un- 

 dertake their safe return to the owner. 



Robert F. Tomes. 



Welford, near Stratford-on-Avon, 

 June 14, 1854. 



XII. 2F 



