rrwtorcs nkoiiiri;rxici;s. 389 



R((nge. Bismarck Archipelago : New Ireland, Duko of York 1., 

 Mioko, Now Britain. 



Coii/pes in the Berlin ^luseum. 



Pteropus »icJanopo(jo)i var. neohihernicus, Peters ; 187<). — Type 

 locality, New Ireland. Cotypes, c? ad. and $ ad., collected by 

 Dr. Hiiskcr ('Gazelle' Expedition); Beg. nos. 4994 and 4995 ; 

 skull of 4994 ( <S ) separate, of 499o in situ. The male represents 

 a dark, the female a light extreme of the colour of the fur. 



Plei-opus degeuer, I'eters ; 187(5. — T3'pe locality. Am Islands, 

 "naeh dcr Angabe des Naturalienhiindlcrs Gerrard." Type, c^ ad., 

 mounted skin, skull separate, collected by James Cockerell ; Berlin 

 Museum, lleg. no. 499(5. — The type of Pi.i/er/eiieris a light-colourod 

 individual of Pt. neohibeniicus ; colour somewhat faded (ihe speci- 

 men has evidently originally been preserved in alcohol); it is 

 matched by one of the cotypes of Pt. neohihernicus ( $ ad., 4995), 

 described by Peters in the same paper and page. Dobson's state- 

 ment, that the t5'pe oi Pt. deyener agrees "so closely with Pteropnx 

 ■inelanopo^/on in size, in the general colour of the fur, and in the 

 nakedness of the back that I really doubt whether it should be 

 considered a variety, even, on account of the comparative shortness 

 of the ears'' (Cat. Chir. B. if. p. 45), is very misleading; in the 

 colour of the fur the type of Pt. d('(/ener is entirely different from 

 Pt. indanopor/on ; the nakedness of the back is undoubtedly due lo 

 bad preservation of the specimen (mounted from alcohol) ; the e;irs 

 have the shortness characteristic of Pt. neuJiibeniirns and pri/>uanii:i. 

 in contradistinction to Pt. mehoiopoaon , kei/ensis, and cintensi-i ; 

 the characters of the teeth are very different from those of tlio 

 three latter species, but quite in accordance with those of the two 

 former. There can bo no doubt, therefore, that Pt. der/ener is a 

 Pt. neoJiihe miens with wrong localitj- ; this conclusion is supported 

 also by the fact that J. Cockerell, in the middle of the seventies, 

 accompained the llev. George Brown on a missionary voyage to the 

 Bismarck Archipelago, whereas he is not known to have collected in 

 the Aru Islands. 



PterojHis coronatnx, Thomas; 1889. — Type locality, Mioko Island, 

 near Duke of York Island ; type in collection. An imaiaturo 

 Pt. neohihernicns with unnsually pronounced and well-defined dark 

 T-shaped mark on the head (see description of colour-variations 

 above). 



P/eropua rufns, Ramsay; 1891. — Type locality, "the Xew Britain 

 group of islanils." Cotypes (" several specimens ") in the Australian 

 Museum, Sydney. From the description and measurements un- 

 doubtedly Pt. neohihernicus. llamsay compared Pt. rufns willi 

 descriplions of Pt. I'nmptfrns and </rnndis, ai)parently not with 

 I't. nenhihirrnicHS. The name rnfus is antelated by Pt. rufns, 

 K. Geoffroy (1804), and Pt. rnfus, Tiedemann (1808), which latter 

 is Pi. lii'/er, Kerr. 



Remnrkx. -This species differs from Pt. p-ipninns ai)])arpntly 

 only in the paler colour of the fur of the back. (Jf thirty-seven 



