CHAP. XVII.] 
MAMMALIA. 
m 
volume was printed) adopts the same family under the name of 
Nycteridse. The curious Indian genus RMnopoma, which, follow- 
ing Dr. J. E. Gray, we have classed in this family, is considered 
hy Mr. Dobson to belong to the Uoctilionidse. 
Fossil Rhinolophidm. — Eemains of a species of Rhinolophus 
still living in England, have been found in Kent’s Cavern, near 
Torquay. 
Family 12.— VESPERTILIONIDjE. (18 Genera, 200 Species.) 
General Distribution. 
Neotropical 
Sub-regions. 
NE ARCTIC 
Sub-regions. 
PaL/EARCTIC 
Sub-regions. 
Ethiopian 
Sub-regions. 
1 Oriental 
[ Sub-regions. 
Australian 
Sub-regions. 
1.2 ,3.4 
1 , 2 .3. 4 , 
1 .2 .3 .4 
1 . 2 .3 .4 
| 1 .2 .3 .4 
1 .2.3.4 
The small bats constituting the family Vespertilionid£e, have 
no nose -membrane, but an internal earlet or tragus , and often 
very large ears. They range over almost the whole globe, being 
apparently only limited by the necessity of procuring insect food. 
In America they are found as far north as Hudson’s Bay and the 
Columbia river ; and in Europe they approach, if they do not pass 
the Arctic circle. Such remote islands as the Azores, Bermudas, 
Fiji Islands, Sandwich Islands, and New Zealand, all possess 
species of this group of bats, some of which, probably inhabit 
every island in warm or temperate parts of the globe. 
The genus Taphozous, which, in our Tables of Distribution in 
vol. i. we have included in this family, is placed by Mr. Dobson 
in his family Emballonuridae, which is equivalent to our next 
family, Noctilionidse. 
Fossil Vespertilionidce. — Several living European bats of this 
f amily — ScotopMlus murinus , Plecotus auritus, Vespertilio nochda, 
and V. pipestrelhis — have been found fossil in bone-caves in 
various parts of Europe. 
Extinct species of Vespertilio have occurred in the Lower 
Miocene at Mayen ce, in the Upper Miocene of the South of 
France, and in the Upper Eocene of the Paris basin. 
