105 



ON A NEW SPECIES OF PTEROPIXE BAT FROM THE 

 NEW BRITAIN GROUP. 



By E. Pierson Ramsay. 



The species at present under consideration appears to have been 

 overlooked by previous writers on the Chiroptera. Several speci- 

 mens occur in a large collection made in the year 1875 by the 

 Rev. George Brown in the New Britain Group of Islands. 

 Judging by the measurements given by Messrs. Dobson and 

 Thomas respectively for Pt. edulis and Pt. grandis, the present 

 species is considerably the largest of the family as yet discovered, 

 the total length of the head and body of the largest examples being 

 fourteen and a-half inches, and the expanse of the wings sixty-two 

 inches, as against twelve and about sixty in Pt. edidis, and thirteen 

 in Pt. yraudis.* The forearms of the three species measure, 

 however, as follows : — 



Ptr.roptis rufus ... ... 7'24 Inches ... 181 Millim. 



edulis 8-80 „ ... 220 „ 



,, grandis ... G--") ,, ... 163 ,, 



Pteropus rufus, sp. now 



Adult female. The general colour is an uniform rusty-red above 

 and below, with a narrow streak of a darker shade along the 

 margin of the wing-membranes at their attachment to the body. 

 The arm (Itnmerns) is clothed at the base with hair similar to that 

 on the body, but towards the distal end it becomes scanty and of 

 a dull brown tint; the membrane adjacent to the arm-bones l)elow 

 is sparsely sprinkled with dull blackish-brown hair : the basal 

 portion of the legs (femora) is also clothed with hair similar to 

 that on the body ; on the back the hair is very much compressed, 

 and even more so on a narrow line between the shoulders where 

 it is almost black, like the wing-membrane itself ; the hair on the 

 hind neck, chest, and breast is longest and grisly ; on the face 

 shorter ; the ears, a small space in front of the orbits, and the 

 muzzle, naked ; a few straggling long black haii's on the face and 

 round the mouth ; the hair on the forehead between the orbits, 

 and that on the occiput, is short, slightly compressed, and of a 

 lighter sandy yellow tint ; on the throat a darker rufous than 

 that of the body. Wing-membranes nearest the back almost 

 black, the remaining poi'tions blackish-brown. 



* Mr. Oldfield Thomas does not mention the expanse of the wings in 

 this species. 



A— March, 1891. 



