Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/133

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With regard to the fundamental error about "Vespertilio murinus" referred to above, it may be explained that Linnæus, speaking in his 'Fauna Suecica' solely of Swedish animals, considered that there were two species of Vespertilio only—V. auritus with long ears, and V. murinus with short ears. The first is Plecotus auritus, and the second is certainly not the large continental species commonly so called, which does not occur in Scandinavia, but is either the Bat hitherto called Vesperugo (Vesperus) discolor, or V. (Vesperus) nilssoni, and in all probability the former, the doubt in no way affecting the generic changes involved. In the 'Systema Naturæ' the same names were used. It is clear therefore that Vespertilio must be adopted for the "Vesperus" group of Vesperugo, and since it seems on the whole advisable that that group should stand as a genus distinct from true "Vesperugo," only two of our British Bats—the Serotine and the Parti-coloured — will fall into Vespertilio in its new sense. The other members of "Vesperugo," as a matter of priority, must bear the easily remembered name of Pipistrellus. For those formerly called Vespertilio the proper name is Myotis.

Full references are given in the paper by Mr. Miller quoted above, as also in the case of Barbastella (1825), which antedates Synotus (1839).