458 Mr. Lay on a Species of Pteropus. 



in dressing the fur of its head. The incisor teeth of the upi^er jaw 

 are well-ranged, and those of the lower are somewhat irregular, the 

 two medial projecting beyond the lateral: the canine often supply the 

 place of the incisors and vice-versa. The nostrils have the form of an 

 incipient Volute. The tongue is large in proportion to the size of the 

 animal, and has a fleshy pavement. The stomach is a loose membranous 

 bag, which is usually found to contain a small portion of acid pulp. The 

 intestinal canal is long, and possesses no caecal appendage ; and its diameter 

 is equal throughout. Length of the body from the tip of the nose to the 

 edge of the interfemoral membrane, 1 inches : extent of the expanded 

 wings, two feet seven inches : length of the antibrachium, five inches : 

 distance between the nostrils and the anterior margin of the eye- lid, eleven 

 lines. 



The Benin Roussette appears to subsist chiefly upon the fruit of the 

 Sapota and Pandanus, the juices of which it sucks, carefully reject- 

 ing the fibrous part ; but since a certain portion of the latter must 

 necessarily enter the mouth while the animal is feeding, this is rolled up 

 in the hollow of the palate, and when the juices are abstracted it is 

 removed from its lodgement by an oblique application of the tongue to 

 make loom for the next juicy morsel of parenchyma. 



To obviate the inconvenience of direct light falling upon the optic 

 nerve, in the pendent attitude of rest, it enjoys the faculty of shutting 

 the ordinary passage of light through the crystalline lens, and the 

 pupil in consequence disappearing, nothing save the brown iris is seen 

 to pervade the eye-ball. In this blind condition it climbs trees, groping 

 its way up to the topmost branches, where, after extending its claws to 

 learn whether there be another sprig within reach still higher than its 

 present situation, it quietly drops its weight upon the hind claws, and 

 composes itself to rest, apparently with as much inward felicity as a 

 traveller feels when, after descending some perilous height, he has 

 safely reached a smooth level. 



It would seem that they make but little use of their eye-sight in the 

 day-time, except when on the wing, trusting in the search of their food 

 to the sense of smell, which they enjoy in perfection. When captured 

 they were often observed to sneeze, which I took to be an indication of 

 the high degree of irritability in the pituitary membrane. A cluster of 



