78 PTEBOPUS. 



shorter than the index finger. Wing-membrane from the sides 

 of the back and the back of the first phalanx of the second toe. 

 Tail none. Fur of the nape of the neck and shoulders differing 

 conspicuously from that of the back. Molars well developed. 



Dentition.!. |, C. ^ P. f=| M. g == 34. 



Note, The Pteropine Bats form one of the greatest pests with 

 which orchardists have to contend, the amount of injury done in 

 a single night by a flock of these animals being almost incalculable, 

 and, so far as I am aware, no feasible proposal has as yet been 

 put forward either for their destruction or for the protection of 

 the orchards from their ravages. They live in enormous com- 

 munities, choosing for their resting places the most inaccessible 

 parts of dense scrubs and gullies, from whence they sally forth in 

 flocks towards sunset and return about the break of day, traversing 

 frequently in the interval great distances in their search for food. 

 As an instance of their powers of locomotion Dr. Ramsay ( ' Proc. 

 Linn. Sac. N.S. Wales, ii. p. 8, 1877) mentions, speaking oiPteropus 

 gouldi, that they habitually cross at dusk from the mainland to 

 the islands in Torres' Straits returning in the early morning to 

 the scrubs. He also states that during the month of August 

 many of the females had young of considerable size attached to 

 the teats. Of Pteropus conspicillatus Mr. John Macgillivray says 

 that, on apparently the only occasion on which he met with them, 

 prodigious numbers were flying about in the bright sunshine. All 

 these Bats have a most disagreeable musky odor, and the stench in 

 and about the neighborhood of their rookeries, arising from the 

 accumulation of their freces and from the putrefying young, is 

 said, in an old camp, to be almost unbearable. In these camps 

 they may be seen by thousands on each tree, hanging head down- 

 wards, quarreling for the best places, keeping up all the while an 

 incessant chattering or bickering inter se; and so great are their 

 numbers that frequently large branches are broken off by the 

 mere weight of the clinging Bats. 



1. PTEROPUS POLIOCEPHALUS, Temminck (1827;. 

 Gray-headed Flying-Fox. 



Size large. Ears much longer than the muzzle ; the upper 

 third of the conch narrow and subacutely pointed ; the backs 

 finely hairy. Interfemoral membrane very narrow in the middle 

 and concealed by the fur. Fur everywhere long and dense, ex- 

 tending on both sides of the legs above to the ankles, below to 

 the ends of the tibije ; on the back directed backwards and slightly 

 adpressed, quite three inches wide across the loins, and nearly 

 two inches wide behind the elbow ; on the legs and rump woolly ; 

 the membrane between the humerus and thigh hairy. Fur of the 

 head gray with a yellowish tinge ; neck, shoulders, and anterior 



