242 BULLETIN 57, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
1838. Y espertilionidw (part; Noctilionina, part) Gray, Mag. Zool. Bot., II, 
p. 498, December, 1838. 
1855. [VespertUionidce] “ Vespertilionides ” (part; Molossina ) Gervais, 
Exp§d. clu Comte de Castelnau, Zool., Mamin., p. 52. 
1865. Molossi Peters, Monatsber, k. preuss. Akad. Wissensch., Berlin, p. 258. 
1866. Noctilionidw (part; Molossina) Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d 
ser., XVII, p. 92, February, 1866. 
1870. Vespertiliones (part; Molossi) Fitzinger, Sitz.-Ber. k. Akad. Wissen- 
sch., Wien, Math. Naturwiss. Classe, LXI, Abtli. I, p. 458. 
1872. Molossidw Gill, Arrangement of the Families of Mammals, p. 17. 
1875. Eniballonurmm (part; Molossina?, part, Molossi) Dobson, Ann. and 
Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., XVI, p. 349, November, 1875. 
1878. Emballonuridcc (part; Molossina?, part, Molossi ) Dobson, Catal. 
Chiropt. Brit. Mus., p. 402. 
1886. Molossidw Gill, Standard Natural History, V, p. 170. 
1889. Gymnuridu; Am eg hi no, Actas de la Acad. Nac, de Ciencias de la Rep. 
Argentina en Cordoba, VI, p. 351. 
1891. Eniballonuridw (part: Molossiiur, part, Molossine division) Flower 
and Lydekker, Mammals living and extinct, p. 669. 
1892. V espertilionidw (part; Molossini, part) Winge, Jordfundne og nu- 
levende Flagermus (Chiroptera) fra Lagoa Santa, Minas Geraes, Bra- 
silien, p. 24. 
1894. V espertilionidw (part; Molossi ) H. Allen, Monogr. Bats. N. Am. 
(1893), p. 162, March 14, 1894. 
Geographic distribution. — Warmer portions of both hemispheres; 
in the old world north to southern Europe and southern Asia, east to 
New Guinea, Australia, and Norfolk Island; in America north to 
the southern United States and throughout the West Indies. 
Characters. — Humerus with trochiter much larger than trochin, 
the discrepancy in size usually more noticeable, than in the Yesper- 
tilionidae, trochin articulating with scapula by a surface nearly as 
large as glenoid fossa, epitrochlea short, but with very conspicuous 
spinous process, capitellum almost directly in line with nearly 
straight shaft; ulna less reduced than in the Yespertilionidae, the 
very slender shaft usually about half as long as radius ; second finger 
with well-developed metacarpal and one rudimentary phalanx ; third 
finger with three phalanges, of which the first is flexed on upper side 
of metacarpal when wing is at rest, and third is cartilaginous except 
occasionally at extreme base, where distinct joint is formed with 
middle phalanx ; fifth finger scarcely longer than metacarpal of first ; 
shoulder girdle normal (Plate XIY, fig. 1), except that seventh 
cervical vertebra is fused with first dorsal ; foot short and broad, but 
of normal structure ; fibula complete, bowed outward from tibia, its 
diameter about half that of latter, entering conspicuously into 
mechanical scheme of the short, stout leg (Plate XIY, fig. 2) ; pelvis 
(Plate XIY, figs. 3-5) normal, the boundaries of the sacral vertebrae 
clearly defined ; lumbar vertebrae not anchylosed ; skull without post- 
