332 PTEROrUS GIGANTlOUrt GlGA^'TEl'S. 



iSpecimens examined. Nineteen, in the collections of the Leydcn 

 and British Museums, including the cotjpes ot Fl. ntedius and 

 Ff. Icelaarti. 



Uanije. Indian Peninsula, soutli of Funjali and Himalaya ; Cevlon. 

 One, as yet unverified, record from Kelat (JJubson, Cat. Chii. B. M. 

 ]j. o2, footnote). 



Tjipe in the Copenhagen Museum. 



Ves].>ertilio ghjantea, liriinnich ; 1782. — Type locality, Bengal; 

 type, a "skin, tolerably -well-preserved, viugs folded on breast, 

 skull and skeleton of hand (nor. foiearm) and foot in situ, labelled, 

 in Reinhardt sen.'s handwriting, ' Orig[in lalstykko Vesjj. (/i,(i)i)ei( 

 Er. [Dyr. Hist.] p. ■:lo-48 ; Bcngalen "' (H. M'inge, in litt.). 

 Name revived by Miller (I. s. c, 1903). 



Fteropus medius, Tcmminck; 1825. — Based on two specimens in 

 the Leyden and two in the Paris Museum, these four collected by 

 I/eschenault and Hussumier in the " environs de Calcutta et do 

 Pondichery," and on " quclques individus que j'ai vus a Londres. ' 

 The two Leyden s[iecimens still in existence (mounted skins, skulls 

 in situ : Jentmk, Cat. >Syst. p. 146, c and d) may be regarded as 

 the cotypes of the species. — Owing to the great resemblance of 

 Ft. '■'■medius" in colour and most other external characters, to 

 the Malagasy Ft. '■'• edtvardsi" (=rnfus), authors soon commenced 

 to confuse the>e two species and record Ft. cdwardn not only from 

 Madagascar but Irom India as well (Is, Geoft'roy, 1828 ; J. B. 

 Tischer, 1829; Lesson, 1836; II. s-. c.) ; and in 1837 Tcmminck 

 himself put down his own Ft. medius as a synonym of E. Geoffroy'.s 

 Ft. edwardsi. As a consequence ot this mislake, the Indian species 

 was, for the next following thirty years, almost constantly referred 

 to in literature under the name '■'Ft. edwardsi" (see referenee-s 

 above, pp. 329-331, in which the name Ft. nifdius is extremely raie 

 between 1840 and 1870, whereas Fl. tdtvardsi during the same 

 period is almost univer.-ally accepted as a name of the Indian 

 species), until the distinctness of the two species was insisted upon, 

 and '■'■inediux" revived as a name of the Indian form, by Gray 

 (J870) and Dobson. 



Ft. kelaarti. Gray; 1870. — Based on two specimens in the 

 collection, viz., a skin with skull, and an odd skull. Tl;e skin 

 described by Gray as Ft. kelaarti was obtained by Capt. J. Stevens 

 in Ceylon (Reg. no. 48.12.22.1) ; the skull, believed by Gray to 

 belong to this skin (which, however, had its own skull in. silu, 

 until extracted for me in 1907), is that of a Ft. vamjti/rus, ])robably 

 the Javan form of this spet-.ies (Ft. v. vaiupi/run). Tiiis fa^jt 

 explaijis why Gray found Ft. kelaarti externally similar to Ft. 

 '■^medius," but differing in skull and teeth. 



a. (^ ad. St. India Museum [P.]. TO.ll.lil .02. 



h. Ad. skeleton. Purchi.sed (Wtuwi.k). 48.0.2().U. 



c. Inim. skull. (V<.y. H.M S. Capt. O. Stanley [P.]. 60.7.:;0.fi0. 



'Kattlesnake.') 



d. Imm. skeleton India. Pureliased (1857). Not rc;<. 



(iTionnted). 

 c. Ad. St. India. l'uiTlia,sed(T..Slici rin). 4.4.:ib.i. 



