J 68 PTEKOPFS STJBNIGER. 



IiuliviJual variation in colour :- — Eack and ruiup in some speci- 

 mens leas blackish (more typical) seal-brown, in others more 

 '• powdered " with greyish, chierly owing to abrasion of the hair- 

 tips, by which the paler middle portion of the hairs gains more 

 influence on the general aspect of the colour. Tibia above and 

 beneath often similar in colour to back, without, or with only an 

 indistinct, tinge of bufty. — Underparts often more conspicuously 

 sprinkled with long pale-coloured hairs.— Colour of mantle varying 

 from ochraceous-bufl' to orange ochraceous and tawny ochraceous. 



Measurements. On pp. 170, 171. 



Specimens examined. Ihe material in the Paris, Berlin, and 

 iJritish Museums. 



Range. The Mascarenes : Keunion, Mauritius. 



Type probably not in existence. 



Hahits. — Ft. suhniijer is said to be strictly nocturnal in habits. 

 It hides in holes in trees or in caves, more than four hundred 

 being sometimes found together. It is popularly believed in 

 lleunion that however large is the number of Kougettes found in a 

 cave, there is always only one male ; this probably means that; 

 apart from the rutting-season, the sexes of this Fruit-bat, like 

 many other bats, occupy separate resting-places. (De la Nux, iu 

 liuffon's f^ijppl. iii. p. 250, 1776; lloch, quoted by GeotFroy, Ann, 

 Mus. d'Hist. Nat. vii. p. 230, 1800.) 



Earliest histori/ in literature. — Owing to its exclusively nocturnal 

 habits and its hiding in hollow trees and eaves, this species, though 

 once common in Eeunion and Mauritius, was not quite so well known 

 to the French zoologists in the latter half of the eighteenth century 

 as Ft. niger. It is perhaps Daubenton's "lioussette" (Mem. Acad. 

 Sci. 175y, p. 385). Brisson's excellent diagnosis (1750 and 1762) 

 of the 'lioussette a col rouge ' (fuscus, auriculis brevibus acutiusculis. 

 collo superiore rubro) was taken from a lleunion specimen in the 

 Cabinet lleaumur. Butfon's description and figure of the Kougette 

 (1763) were based on a dried specimen in the Royal Cabinet, sent 

 from lleunion by de la Nux, " ancien Conseiller au Conseil royal de 

 cette lie," his later account of its habits (1776) on information from 

 the same observer. Pennant (1781) put the llougette of French 

 writers down as a variety of Seba's " Ternate Bat." 



Linne, in his 10th and 12th editions (1758 and 1766), has no 

 reference to the llougette. The early post-Linnean compilers 

 (P. L. a. Miiller, Erxleben, Boddaert, Gmelin, Donndorfi') record 

 tlie species as a variety of the Linnean Vcspertilio (or Fterojms) 

 vampyrus. The same view was taken by ISchreber (177-1), who 

 probably knew the species only from literature. 



Vespertilio varnpyrvs subniger, Kerr; 17^2. — Based on Brisson's 

 Pteropxis collo ruhro. Kerr's brief description is taken partly from 

 Brisson, partly from BufFon, his notes on its habits from de la Nux's 

 letter to Buflbn. Inasmuch as Brisson's Ft. collo rubro and Buffbn's 

 llougette were based on a specimen from lleunion, this island must 

 be fixed as the type locality of Ft. s^ihmger. 



