GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | 1. 2. 3. 4 |1 -- -- -- |-- 2 -- -- |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- 4 | | | | | The Noctilionidæ, or short-headed Bats, are found in every region, but are very unequally distributed. Their head-quarters is the Neotropical region, where most of the genera occur, and where they range from Mexico to Buenos Ayres and Chili, while in North America there is only one species in California. They are unknown in Australia; but one species occurs in New Zealand, and another in Norfolk Island. Several species of _Dysopes_ (or _Molossus_) inhabit the Oriental region; one or two species being widely distributed over the continent, while two others inhabit the Indo-Malayan Islands. A species of this same genus occurs in South Africa, and another in Madagascar and in the Island of Bourbon; while one inhabits Southern Europe and North Africa, and another is found at Amoy in China. It will be seen therefore, that these are really South American bats, which have a few allies widely scattered over the various regions of the globe. Their affinities are, according to Mr. Tomes, with the Phyllostomidæ, a purely South American family. The species which forms the connecting link is the _Mystacina tuberculata_, a New Zealand bat, which may, with almost equal propriety be placed in either family, and which affords an interesting illustration of the many points of resemblance between the Australian and Neotropical regions. Dr. Peters has separated this family into three,--Mormopidæ, which is wholly Neotropical, and is especially abundant in the West Indian Islands; Molossidæ, chiefly consisting of the genus _Molossus_; and Noctilionidæ, comprising the remainder of the family, and wholly Neotropical. Mr. Dobson, however, classes the Mormopes with the Phyllostomidæ, and reduces the {185}Molossi to the rank of a sub-family. In our first volume we have classed _Rhinopoma_ with the Rhinolophidæ, and _Taphozous_ with the Vespertilionidæ; but according to Mr. Dobson both these genera belong to the present family. _Remarks on the Distribution of the Order Chiroptera._