PTEEOPOS NIGER. 21ff 



ia four and a half or five months, so that the single young 

 is generall)' born about one month after spring equinox (October), 

 After eight months (winter solstice, about June) the young is full- 

 grown. In 1722, on his arrival at Keuniou, de la Nux found the 

 Koussettes extremely common ; abundance of food -would attract 

 flocks of a hundred, a hundred and fifty, or even two hundred to 

 one spot ; during his more than fifty years of residence in the island 

 the number of individuals rapidly decreased, chiefly owing to de- 

 forestation of the island and the shooting of these Fruit-bats for 

 food. 



Earliest records of the species. — Few, if any, species of Fruit-bat 

 can be traced so far back in literature as Pt. niger. The example 

 named by Lecluse (1G05) Vespertilio inrjens was seen by him in 

 Amsterdam in 1G03, and stated to have been brought from llha do 

 Cerne (Mauritius) ; his woodcut alone would almost be sufficient 

 for a safe identification of the species ; the description and locality 

 exclude all doubt. 



The habitat of the species accounts for the fact that it was 

 particularly well known to the French zoologists in the latter half 

 of the eighteenth century. It is Daubenton's " Chien-volant" from 

 Eeunion (1759), of which he gives an excellent detailed description. 

 Whether his " Roussette " from the same island (Z. s. c. p. 385), 

 stated to differ from the Chien-volant in colour only, but of which 

 he had only seen one specimen in bad condition, is Pt. nir/er or 

 Pt. suhniijer is open to question. 



Brisson (1756 and 1762) discriminated three species of Pterojnis: 

 Pt. ritfus ant niger., " La iloussette," from Reunion, which is un- 

 questionably /*<. ?u(/^?*; but with this species Brisson erroucously 

 united Seba's Canis volans Ternatamis Orievfalis ; further, Pt. collo 

 riihro, from Reunion, which is Pi. suhniger ; and Pt. auricidis 

 'patulis, from Nova Hispania, which is Vampynim spectrum. 



Buffon (1763) distinguished sharply between La Roussette and 

 La Rougette, both from Reunion ; the former is Pt. niger, the latter 

 Pt. suhniger. In Buffon's time the Roussette was represented in 

 the Royal Cabinet by one specimen, mounted with expanded wings, 

 sent from Reunion by de la Nux, one skeleton, and some anatomical 

 preparations ; Buffon's plate shows the light-coloured sides of the 

 back so characteristic of Pt. niger. No later writer has given a 

 better, more detailed and vivid account of the habits of this species 

 than de la Nux (quoted by Buffon, 1776). Buftbn's specimens are 

 probably no longer in existence ; none of the specimens I have 

 seen in the Paris Museum can be identified with those described by 

 Buffon. 



Vespertilio (and Pteropus) vampgrns, of Linne and the early 

 post-Linnean writers. — Linne's V. vampyrxts (1758 and 1766) is a 

 mixture of three species, viz. Pt. vampyrns (i. e. " Pt. edulis, Geoff.," 

 as understood by Dobson), based on Scba ; Pt. niger, based on 

 Lecluse ; and Pf. rvfvs, based on Edwards (Great Bat from 

 Madagascar). Techuically the name vampyrus must stand for the 

 first of these species. 



