date-plaiitatious around villajrcs, iu sycamore, mulberry, and other 

 trees; occasionally it is found singly, but generally a few are 

 associated togeilier ; feeds on fruits of the date-palm, wild figs, &c. 

 Visiting Cyprus in 1901-2, iliss D. M. A. Bate found li. (pr^i/ptiacas 

 excessively common ; it does considerable damage to the fruit-crops, 

 particularly to the oranges and dates, though while the latter are 

 ripening they arc often envelo])ed in sacks or matting for protec- 

 tion ; during the summer it roosts in thick trees, in winter in 

 closely packed bunches in the roofs of old buildings and caves ; it 

 is very restless, and extremely noisy, even in daytime and when 

 undisturbed (P. Z. 8. 1903, ii. p. 342). 



Ji. leacM has repeatedly bred in captivit)- (Zoological Gardens, 

 London and Cologne). During the act of copulation the male is 

 suspended (as usual by thn hind feet) behind the female, its under- 

 parts being iti contact with the lower back of the female; an 

 embracing with the anterior extremities does not take place ; 

 period of gestation (in one case, Cologne gardens) precisely 1.5 weeks 

 after last copulation ; during the first months after birth the young 

 bat was rarely seen, suspended as it was from the mammfe of the 

 female and completely covered by her wing-membranes ; by tlie 

 end of the third month the young commenced to take part in the 

 meals of the parents (the juice, not the flesh, of moist fruit), but 

 remained in its protected po-itiou at the breast of the mother till 

 the end of the fourth month ; at the age of eight months it was 

 still not quite full-grown (Wundcrlich, Zool. Garten, xxxii. pp. 78- 

 81, 1891). — According to Dr. J. Anderson, j-oung of R. cer/)/j)tiacHS 

 are born generally in February and Jlarch ; a female of M. arabicns 

 killed on March 29 at Lahej, Aden, had a single young one at her 

 breast, and other gravid females had single foetuses (Yerbury & 

 Thomas, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 545); a female of ii'. amphxicmdatus 

 obtained by A. Everett in Alor Inland, N. of Timor, had one young 

 on March 24 (collector's label, British Museum). 



Scarcely anything is known about the habits of the Oriental and 

 Austro-Malayan species. Hodgson's account of the habits and 

 extensive niglitly migrations of " Fferojms pyrivorus" i. e. B. le- 

 xcJienanlfi, in Nepal (J. A. S. B. iv. p. 700. 1835) — copied by Hutton, 

 P. Z. S. 1872, ])p. 693-94, under the head of Cynopterus marginatiis, 

 and by Dobson, in his Catalogue, under Cynonycteris amplexi- 

 caudatvs, and again, by an oversight, under Cynopterus marginaf^'s 

 — is based wholly on a misconception, as pointed out by Scully 

 (J. A. S. B. Ivi. pp. 237-38, 1887). Dobson was informed that a 

 colony of 7^. lesrhi'navlti living near the sea at ifoulniein were seen 

 to feed on Mollusca left exposed by the tide (J. A. K. B. x)ii. p. 200, 

 1873) ; this would seem to explain the occurrence of an allied 

 species (7?. arahicns) in so dreary a desert as the island of Kishm, 

 Persian Gulf, where an exclusively fruit-eating mammal could 

 hardly exist. 



Affinities. — Rousettus is allied (though not very closely) to 

 EiloJ.on ; the two genera represent no doubt diverging branches 

 from one common stem. In having no bony auditory meatus, the 



