CHAP. XVIJ,] 
MAMMALIA. 
185 
Molossi to the rank of a sub-family. In our first volume we 
have classed Rhinopoma with the . Ehinolophidse, and Taphozous 
with the VespertilionidEe ; but according to Mr. Dobson both 
these genera belong to the present family. 
Remarks on the Distribution of the Order Chiropterct . 
Although the bats, from their great powers of flight, are not 
amenable to the limitations which determine the distribution of 
other terrestrial mammals, yet certain great facts of distribution 
come out in a very striking manner. The speciality of the neo- 
tropical region is well shown, not only by its exclusive possession 
of one large family (Phyllostomidee), but almost equally so by the 
total absence of two others (Pteropidae and Ehinolophidse). The 
Nearctic region is also unusually well marked, by the total ab- 
sence of a family (Ehinolophidse) which is tolerably well repre- 
sented in the Palsearctic. The Pteropidse well characterize the 
tropical regions of the Old World and Australia; while the Yes- 
pertilionidse are more characteristic of the Palsearctic and Nearctic 
regions, which together possess about 60 species of this family. 
The bats are a very difficult study, and it is quite uncertain how 
many distinct species are really known. Schinz, in his Bynopds 
MammaMum (1844) describes 330, while the list given by 
Mr. Andrew Murray in his Geographical Distribution of Mam- 
malia (1866), contains 400 species. A small number of new 
species have been since described, but others have been sunk as 
synonyms, so that we can perhaps hardly obtain a nearer ap- 
proximation to the truth than the last number. In Europe there 
are 35 species, and only 17 in North America. 
Fossil Chiroptera. — The fossil remains of bats that have yet 
been discovered, being chiefly allied to forms still existing in the 
same countries, throw no light on the origin or affinities of this 
remarkable and isolated order of Mammalia ; but as species very 
similar to those now living were in existence so far back as 
Miocene or even Eocene times, we may be sure the group is one 
of immense antiquity, and that there has been ample time for 
the amount of variation and extinction required to bring about 
