PTEROPODID/E 



651 



circumstances that the wattles of male gallinaceous birds swell up, 

 namely, when engaged in courting the females. Other remarkable 

 conditions in which these Bats appear to differ from all other species 

 occur in the form of the hyoid bones and larynx. These Bats 

 appear to live principally on figs, the juicy contents of which 

 their large lips and capacious mouths enable them to swallow 

 without loss. 



Pteropus. 1 — Dentition : i |, c ], p :;, m §•; total 34. This 

 has more than forty species, and thus includes more than 



genus 



All 



are 



of 



large 



size, and the 



one 

 are 



the 



Fig. 



301. — Head of Fox-Bat (Pteropus personatus). 

 From Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. lS6t>. 



half the members of the family 

 al >senceof a tail, the long pointed 

 muzzle (Fig. 301), and the woolly 

 fur covering the neck render 

 their recognition easy. They 

 are commonly known as "Flying- 

 Foxes, " or Fox-Bats ; and one \ 

 of the species (P. edulis) in- 

 habiting Java measures 5 feet 

 across the fully extended wings, 

 and is thus the largest known 

 species of the order. All the 

 species closely resemble 

 another in dentition, and 

 mainly distinguished by 

 form of the ears and the cjuality of the fur. P. scajmlalux, from 

 Xorth-East Australia, approaches the species of the second sub- 

 family in the remarkable narrowness of its molars and premolars. 



The range of this genus extends from Madagascar and the 

 neighbouring islands through the Seychelles to India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, the Malay Archipelago, Southern Japan, New Guinea, 

 Australia, and Polynesia (except the Sandwich Islands, Ellice's 

 Group, Gilbert's Group, Tokelau, and the Low Archipelago). Of 

 the islands inhabited by it some are very small and remote from 

 any continent, such as Savage Island in the South Pacific and 

 Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean. Although tw r o species inhabit the 

 Comoro Islands, which are scarcely 200 miles from the African 

 coast, not a single species is found in Africa ; but in India, 

 separated by thousands of miles of almost unbroken ocean, a 

 species exceedingly closely allied to the common Madagascar 

 Fox-Bat is abundant. The Malay Archipelago and Australia are 

 their headquarters ; and in some places they occur in countless 

 multitudes. Mr. Macgillivray remarks of P. conspicillatus : " On 

 the wooded slope of a hill on Fitzroy Island I one day fell in Avith 

 this Bat in prodigious numbers, looking while flying in the bright 

 sunshine (so unusual for a nocturnal animal) like a large flock of 

 1 Geoftroy, Ann. du Museum, vol. xv. p. 90 (1810). — ^".v. Brisson. 



