![Thumbnail: [Volume 4, 1871 page 184]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_04/thumbnails/rsnz_04_00_0226_0184_ac_02.gif)
Art. XXV.—On the Bats of New Zealand.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 26th August, 1871.]
Only two species of bat are at present known to inhabit New Zealand, and neither of these are found anywhere else. The commoner kind, or the Shorteared Bat, belongs to a large genus widely spread over the old world, and containing four species from Australia; it is, therefore, probable that other species of this genus will be found in New Zealand. The rarer kind, or the Long-eared Bat, is so different from any other known species, that Dr. J. E. Gray has placed it in a separate genus. Its nearest allies inhabit South America, so that in New Zealand representatives of the bats of both the old and new worlds meet.
In the following descriptions the characters of the families have been taken from Dr. J. E. Gray's arrangement of the bats in the “Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,” Vol. XVII., pp. 89–93, as quoted in the “Zoological Record” for 1866:—
Family Vespertilionidœ.
Face simple; nostrils simple, on the front of the nose; the cutting teeth separated in the middle by a space, and placed near the canines; grinders
![Thumbnail: [Volume 4, 1871 page 185]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_04/thumbnails/rsnz_04_00_0227_0185_ac_02.gif)
acutely tubercular, three on each side in each jaw, the hinder ones short and broad, with one, two, or three false grinders in front of them; inter-maxillaries separate from one another in the front of the palate, leaving a notch between the cutting teeth.
Genus Scotophilus. Leach.
Face short and broad, nearly bald; a short groove behind the nostrils; forehead flat; ears separated, of medium size; only two incisors in the upper jaw, and none in the lower one; tail long, extending to the end of the interfemoral membrane, and enclosed the whole way.
Scotophilus tuberculatus. Forst.
Short-eared Bat.
Fur long; above reddish brown, darker on the head, neck, and shoulders; below yellowish-brown, darker on the throat and breast; membrane brown; a few short bristles on the muzzle; ears rounded; tragus short, thick, and rounded at the tip. Length, from the snout to the root of tail, 2 inches; of tail, 1.5 inches; extent of wings, 11 inches; length of head, .6 inch; of ear, .4 inch; of tragus, .2 inch.
Spread over both islands.
Family Noctilionidœ.
Nostrils on the sides of the nose; the cutting teeth in the middle of the inter-space between the canines; canines wide apart in front; grinders acutely tubercular, three on each side in each jaw, the hinder upper short and broad, with one or two small false grinders in front of them; forehead flat; intermaxillaries small, close in front.
Genus Mystacina. Gray.
Muzzle elongated; face simple; ears separated; two incisors above and two below, the upper ones large; tail short, the tip protruding from the upper surface of the inter-femoral membrane; claw of the thumb divided.
Mystacina velutina
Long-eared Bat.
Mystacina tuberculata. Gray.
Fur short, erect; greyish-brown, lighter on the under surface; membrane greyish-brown, transversely grooved near the body; a row of short bristles round the muzzle; ears oval, tragus long, subulate; inter-femoral membrane truncated; length from snout to the root of the tail, 2.35 inches; of tail,
![Thumbnail: [Volume 4, 1871 page 186]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_04/thumbnails/rsnz_04_00_0228_0186_ac_02.gif)
.5 inch; extent of wings, 11.5 inches; length of head .7 inch; of ear, .7 inch; of tragus, .36 inch.
Of the two specimens in the Colonial Museum, one was obtained in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, and the other in Milford Sound, on the southwest coast of the South Island.
Dr. Gray named this bat tuberculata, under the impression that he was describing the Vespertilio tuberculatus of Forster; but it is evident from Forster's description that his bat was the short-eared kind. As, therefore, Dr. Gray's name was given in error, and as confusion is likely to arise if both our bats have the same specific name, I propose to call this species velutina, from the velvet like nature of its fur.