266 Bibliographical Notice. they must play in this respect by their enormous quantity on the coasts of Greenland have been described by Captain HolboU in several contributions to Kroyer's treatises. In one place he says, " By letting down a basket containing a dead raven and a piece of the head of a shark to a depth of 75 fathoms, I have, in the course of two hours, got more than six pints of these small animals, although the basket was open and left a broad stream of animals, like a swarm of bees, that escaped during the hauling-up of the basket" (Naturh. Tidsskr. iv. p. 143). In another place the following occurs : — " The larger species of this genus [Anonyx) are so voracious that they do not cease eating, even if the food is taken out of the water. If several are confined together in a vessel they soon eat one another " {ibid. 2 ser. ii. p. bb). [To be continued J. BIBLIOGHAPHICAL NOTICE. Monograph of the Asiatic Chiroptera, and Catalogue of the Species of Bats in the Collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. By G. E. DoBsoN, M.A., M.B., F.L.S., &c. 8vo. London: 1876. A FEW months ago we published in this journal a sketch of a new classification of Bats by the author of this work, a classification which, without departing very widely from the groupings of pre-vious authors, certainly seems to bring the whole arrangement of these animals into a particularly inteUigible form. As a reprint of the article above referred to constitutes the general introduction to the * Monograph of Asiatic Chiroptera,' it need not be specially noticed here. The chief characteristic of the new classification consists in the recognition, in accordance, apparently, with the doctrine of evolution, of a sort of parallelism in the families of the insectivorous Bats (Microcliiroptera of Dobson) — the simple-nosed Vespertihonidse and Emballonuridoe (better, perhaps, Noetilionidfe) leading respectively from supposed unknown ancestral forms to the Nycteridae (Megader-mata) and Rhinolophidse on the one hand, and to the Phyllostomidae on the other, the Pteropidae being regarded (and, we think, with reason) as representing a distinct type or line of development. It is particularly interesting to find that the discrimination of these two alliances (or lines of descent) is confirmed by so minute a character as the microscopic structure of the hair — the members of the " Yesper-tilionine aUiance " (VespertUiouidae, Nycteridae, and Rhinolophidae) having the superficial scales of the hairs imbricated, while those of the " EmbaUonuriue alliance " (Emballonurida3 and Phyllostomidae) have them whorled and generally acute and projecting ; but we cannot understand how Mr. Dobson can regard the hair of the
Monograph of the Asiatic Chiroptera, and Catalogue of the Species of Bats in the Collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. By G. E. Dobson, M.A., M.B., F.L.S., &c. 8vo. London: 1876
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