genera, is found in every Region, and seems to pervade nearly the whole of the earth's surface, and to extend far north and south. The common Pipistrelle (Vespertilio pipistrellus), ranges into the high north of Europe; while another species of the same genus (V. magellanicus) inhabits the cold and desolate shores of the Straits of Magellan. The Serotine Bat (V. serotinus) is remarkable as the only species of Bat that is known to inhabit both the Old and New Worlds, being found in North America as far south as Guatemala. It also extends over a great part of the Oriental and Ethiopian Regions. The fourth family of Insectivorous Bats, the Emballonuridæ, easily distinguished by the tail perforating the inter-femoral membrane or being produced far beyond it, has likewise an extensive distribution, as members of the fifteen genera into which it is divided occur in every one of the six Regions. But these Bats are more abundant within the tropics, and are only feebly represented by a few stray forms in the Nearctic and Palæarctic Regions. Of the two Bats known to occur in New Zealand, one (Mystacops) is a member of this family, and is peculiar to New Zealand. This and another Bat (Chalinolobus morio), belonging to the family Vespertilionidæ, are the only two indigenous mammals of the New Zealand group, the Rat Mus maorium, often attributed to it, being probably a modern introduction. The last family of Bats, the Phyllostomatidæ, or Vampires, are entirely restricted to the Neotropical Region, where they form one of the most characteristic groups of mammals, being very numerous alike in species, genera, and individuals. Of the thirty-six genera, with upwards of eighty species, which belong to this family, the two most remarkable are the purely blood-sucking forms Desmodus and Diphylla, which present an extraordinary modification of their digestive organs, specially adapting them for a diet of blood. These little animals, in fact, are those which have given such a bad reputation to the whole family of Vampires, though it was formerly supposed that the Vampirus spectrum, and other larger forms of tropical America, were likewise sanguinivorous in their habits. But this large Bat is now known, like many other representatives of the same family, to subsist mainly upon fruit, whilst other Vampires feed on a mixed diet of fruit and insects, or on insects only; and others again of the larger forms are said to prey chiefly upon the smaller members of their own order. |