594 CYNorxEUUs. 



forest, but. more often liaiiging in bunches among the crowns of 

 plantains, cocoanut, or Palmyra palms, or under the eaves of the 

 houses, frequently also in caves or deserted mine-galleries. They 

 have been met with from sea-level to an altitude of 6000 feet 

 (C. s. tittJuecheilus in 3arA,fuie Salomon Miiller). Their movements 

 when on wing are light, swift, and buoyant, far different from the 

 measured rowing, the direct and heavy "tiiglit of the large Fleropus ; 

 they rarely, if ever, frequent the higher branches of the trees, are 

 usually observed dodging about amongst bushes and low trees, 

 hence easily escape notice if not looked for. The voracity of captive 

 specimens has been described by several writers. Dobsou gave a 

 C. gphinx a ripe l)anana which, witli the skin removed, weighed two 

 ounces ; the animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, fell 

 upon the fruit, seizing it between the thumbs and the index fingers, 

 and took large mouthfuls out of it, opening the jaws to their fullest 

 extent with extreme avidity ; while eating it " seemed to be a kind 

 of living mill, the food passing from it almost as soon as devoured"' ; 

 after three hours the whole fruit was consumed, but the bat itself, 

 when killed next morning, was found to weigh only one ounce. Of 

 guava it swallows the juice only, opening and closing its mouth very 

 leisurely in the act of mastication, and rejecting the residue (Blyth). 

 In nature C'l/nojiterus has been found feeding on wild figs and on 

 the flowers of plantains and Areca palms ; " anyone who chooses to 

 watch a plantain tree in flower, about half an hour after sunset, is 

 pretty sure to get a chance of making its acquaintance " (Wroughton, 

 Eomhay region). There is no evidence that it ever feeds on insects, 

 but AVroughton once found in the mouth of a freshly killed C. sphinx' 

 8. pellet which may have been shell-fish. In some places, e. y. 

 Noith Siam, these bats are caught and sold for food in the markets 

 (collector's label, B. M. 2.6.G.1). Young ones, evidently several 

 w-eeks old, were taken by Mr. Everett in Sirhassen, S. Natuna 

 Islands, on September 20tli, while some of the females had not yet 

 brought forth, though the wet season was beginning.* 



Affinities. — Cympterus has undoubtedly originated from a 

 Bousettus-Wke stock ; but it is in many important characters more 

 specialized than the genus Bousdhis ; it has followed a line of 

 development to a large extent parallel to that of Myonycteris fsee 

 p. 578), but is still more specialized. The rostrum is considerably 

 shortened as compared with that oi liouscttus, the postdental palate 

 narrower, the orbital cavities larger ; the posterior molars below 

 and above (m and m^), which even in the most primitive living 

 Eruit-bats are reduced in size, have entirely disappeared, while the 

 rudimentary anterior premolars (p^ and p^) have been preserved 

 unmodified ; the large premolars and molars are relatively heavier 

 (shorter and broader) than in Rousettus, and m^ and p^ show a very 

 pronounced tendency to develop a surface cusp or ridge ; also the 



* S Miiller Tetnminck's Nat. Gesch. Ned. Ov. Eez., Zoogd. p. 21 (1839-44); 

 Blvth,' J. A. S.'b. xiii. p. 479 (1844) ; Dobson, Cat. Cln'r. B.M. p. 83 (1878) ; 

 A Everett Nov. Zool. i. p. 055 (1894); Wroughton, J. Bomb N. H. Soc. 

 xii, p. 717 (1899) ; Eobinson & Kluss, J. Fed. Mai. St. Mus. iv. p. 1G8 (1909). 



