PTEKOPLS ALD\BEEN81f!. 213 



liange. Seychelles. 



Coty^ies in the Paris Museum. 



Habits.— Ft. seychelleiisis is very common on all the islands of 

 the Seychelle group. Though often on the wing in strong sunlight, 

 between 8 and 10 in the morning, it is chiefly nocturnal in its 

 habits. About an hour before sunset these fruit-bats may be seen 

 flying at great heights from their resting-place in the woods, making 

 as if they were going to cross the island and then, Avhen just over 

 the group of trees to be visited, falling down as it were among 

 them. The first comers take up good places, with plenty of fruit 

 near them, alighting without noise ; by-and-by the arrivals are 

 more numerous, and then the noise begiiis, every late comer trying 

 to dislodge an earlier comer, and this not without much growling 

 and grumbling and chattering. A little after sunset the noise is 

 generally at its highest, and more than a hundred bats may now be 

 found feeding in one small group of trees. Their favourite food 

 seems to be the " fruit de Cythere " {Spondias cytherea) or the 

 Mango {^Manyifcra inclica), but almost any fruit is welcome to them. 

 The flesh of these Bats is much appreciated by the Creole inhabitants 

 of the Seychelles. (Ed. Perceval Wright, I. s. c.) 



Pteropus seychellensis, A. Milne-Edw. ; 1378. — Type locality, 

 Mahe, Seychelle Islands (Lantz coll.). The Paris Museum possesses 

 a series of specimens obtained b)' Lantz in Mahe, at least four of 

 which must be regarded as cotypes of the species, viz. three mounted 

 specimens (group on one block), all slightly immature, and one 

 2 iram., unmounted skin ; skulls of all in situ ; llcg. nos. 1106, 

 1108, 1109, 1112. Separated by Milne-Edwards from " Pi. ed- 

 u'ctrdsi " from Madagascar on account of its darker-coloured under- 

 parts, and because " le collier roux ferrugineux si marque de ccs 

 chiropteres [ i. e. edivardsi] manque chez ceux des Sej'chellcs." I am 

 unable to explain how Milne-Edwards came to give this latter 

 character; as a matter of fact, all the specimens from the Seychelle 

 Islands, including those examined by Milne-Edwards, are similar 

 in the colour of the mantle to Pt. rufus and comorensis. 



a. S P"ll. al. Seychelles. Dr. Ed. Perceval Wright [C.]. 69.5.2.1 1. 



A. 5 imni, al. ; skull. Seychelles. J. S. Gardiner, Esq. [P.]. 6.3.18.1. 



31. Pteropus aldabrensis, True. 



Pteropus aldabrensis, True, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xvi. p. 533 



(U Julv, 1893: Aldabra I.); Abbott, torn. cit. p. 762 (1893: 



Aldabra") ; Trouessart, Cat. Manun. i. p. 81 (1897 : Aldabra) ; 



Lorenz-Liburnaii, Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xxi. pt. 3. p. 455, pl.x.xxii. 



fig.^. 3 a,Sb,3c,3 d (sku\\) (1898 : .\ldabra) ; VoeltzI;ow, op. cit. 



XX vi. pt. 0, pp. 543, 552 (1902 : Aldabra) ; Mdler, Fam. S,- Gin. 



Bats, p. 58 (1907). 

 Pteropus edwardsi h. aldabrensis, Matschie, Megachir. p. 16 



(1899) ; Trouefsart, Cat. Mamvt., Suppl. p. 50 (1904: Aldabra). 

 Plcropus [sp.1. VoeltzUou; Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xxi. pt. 1, p. 66 



(1897 : Aldabra). 



Diagnosis. — Allied to Ft. coniorennis, but much smaller, and with 



