General Notes. 
217 
TADARIDA RAFINESQUE VERSUS NYCTINOMUS (iEOFFROY. 
Tn 1814, on page 55 of Precis des Decouvertes soniiologi(jne.s f)u zoolog- 
iejues et botauiejnes, Ralinesque wrote: “Je viens de m’apercevoir que 
iMr. Geoflroy St. Hilaire a etabli en 1810, le G. [cure] Cephalotes avec le 
Pleropus pal[l]asii et une autre espece C. peronii; mais nos caracteres 
different en ce que dans inon C. teniotis [see page 12 of the Precis] il 
n’y a anenne [sic] incisive inferieure : [a gross misstatement of fact] s’il 
compose nn G. [enre] particnlier, il fandra le nommer Tadakida teniotis.” 
So far as I have been able to find this use of Tadarida is the earliest 
name that has been applied to the bats long known as Nyctinomus, 
Nyctinomus is usually considered to have been first published by E. 
Geoff’roy in the second volume of the natural history of the Description 
de I’Egypte, pages 114 and 128, the only species mentioned being Nycti¬ 
nomus aegyptiaciis. The date on the title page of this volume is 1812. 
Sherborn (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1897, pp. 285-288) concludes that the 
volume did not appear until 1818, four years later than Rafinesque’s little 
work. Sherborn advances his opinion with excellent arguments which 
seem beyond refutation. Among other interesting things he shows that 
Gray had received a set of proofs of Geoffroy’s paper presumably later 
than Alarch, 1818. GeofFroy probably sent proofs to other zoologists of 
his time. At any rate in 1816, Oken (Lehrbuch Naturgesch, pt. 3, vol. 2, 
p. 924) uses Nyctinomus in the same sense as did GeofFroy, as well as the 
genera P/ecof tts, Stenoderma, Rhinopoma, Taphozous and Myopterus, names 
usually accredited to GeofFroy in 1818, but which should stand on the 
authority of Oken, 1816. 
That Geoffroy’s names were not published before 1816 or 1817, seems 
to be made certain by an examination of pages 125 to 130 of volume 1 of 
Cuvier’s Rfegne Animal, 1817 (actually appearing late in the previous 
year). Five of Geoff’roy’s six new genera of bats in the Description de 
I’Egypte are mentioned there: Les Nyctinomes. (GeofF.) p. 125; Les 
Stenodermes. (GeofF.) p. 125; Les Rhynopomes. (GeofF.) p. 128; Les 
Taphiens. (Thaphozous, Geoff’.); Les Oreillards. (Plecotus. Geoff.). 
The last two are the only ones in which the generic names occur in Latin 
form. Plate references in the Description de I’l^gypte are given by Cuvier. 
On those plates the names appear as French words only. No page or 
volume numbers of the ‘‘Description” are given, but with respect to 
most of the names that were in use before the appearance of the Regne 
Animal Cuvier gives volume and jiage references. The inference is that 
the plates of the mammals of the Description de I’ Egypte were in exist¬ 
ence before the text. 
Unless the above conclusions can be shown to be founded in error the 
bats currently called Nyctinomus should in the future be designated by 
Rafinesque’s name Tadarida. 
Dlainville (Compt. Rend. Acad. 8ci. Paris, vol. 5, p. 821, 1837), and 
Gray (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. 17, p. 93, 1866) used Tadarida in 
