T2a EoxrciKKis. 



8nid here that all tlie^e (litfereiitial characters, except the first, 

 break more or less coinpletel)' down on closer test ; the}' are 

 majority characters leaving out of consideration the exceptions 

 to the general rule in lioth suhf;imilies. The mohirs of Eonycteris 

 are neither smaller nor narrower tlian in Stenont/cteris, Pteropus 

 scapulatus, or Fl. waodfordi ; the incisors of Syconi/cti-ris are rela- 

 tively much larger than in many Epomophoi'ine and Cynopteriue 

 genera ; the hrain-case is in the majoiity of Macroglossine genera 

 more strongly deflected than iu other Eruit-hats, but in Eonycteris 

 and Meguloylossus the deflection is by no means greater than iu 

 iSlenDnycterls or the two species of Pterojms referred to above ; 

 tlie symphysis of the mandible is, as a rule, longer and its npper 

 surface more nearly hori/ontal than in the Ftcropodiiue., but the 

 difference in these respects between Eonycteris on the one hand, 

 tStenonycteris and certain other FteroiMdiiue on the other, is very 

 inconspicuous indeed. 



The claim of the Maci-oylossina' to stand as a distinct "sub- 

 family" must rest chiefly, if not entirely, on these two facts, 

 viz., that the tongue, though api)roached by tlnif of certain forms of 

 PteropodiiKf, is still more highly specialized, and thnt fill the forms 

 included in the Macroylossiiuf are undoubtedly phyJogenetically 

 intimately interconnected and therefore form a perfectly natural 

 section. "Whether this section is termed a " subfamily '' or merely 

 a "group of genera" is a matter of minor consequence; the 

 former alternative is the more convenient from the systemafist's 

 point of view, the latter would perhaps lend more emjihasis to the 

 fiict that the break in the continuity of the forms when passing 

 ffom the lowest Pteropodiiue (JiouscHas) to the least specialized 

 Alacroijlossina' [Eonyctrris) is of the very slightest. 



2S. E0NYCTEEI3. Dohsou. 

 Eoiiycta-ix, Dobson, Cat. Chir. ]{. M. p. 94. 

 ]87;j. Eouvctei-is, Duhson, Pruc. A. S. IL lf>73 



Type. 



(m'euliiig -2 J Lily), p. 148 E. spdaja. 



1889. Callinvctevis, Jmlinh, Notes Lci/d. Mas. xi. 



p. 2uy (Nov. 1889) E. rosenbergi. 



Macroglossus (pt.), Bobsvn, Proc A. S. B. 1871 (May), pp. 105-108. 



Eonycteris, Poison, I. s. c. ('-2 July," 1873: pielimiiiary note: 

 lype designated, no de.'-cr. of genus) ; id., J. A. <S'. P. xlii. 

 p -04 (read 5 July, 1873: description) : id., Ann. 4" May. N. H. 

 (4)'xvi. p. 354 (1875); id.. Cat. Chi>: P. AJ. p. t»4 (1878); 

 Lecke, Luitds Univ. Irsgkr. xiv. pp. 22 & a-q. (1878: dental 

 fornnda) ; Pobin, Ann. Sci. A'at. (6) Zool. xii. Art. 2, pp. 4 

 & stq. (1881 : visceral anntoniy) ; Thomas, P. Z. S. 1887, p. 324 

 (synopsis of Macroglossine gcntra) ; Plover ii,- LydelPer, Mamm. 

 p. 654 (1891); M'mye,B Mm. Lundd, ii. pt. 1, pp. 2'!, 27, 28, 

 56 (1892 : affinities ; dental IVirniula) ; Midachie, Meyachir. p. 8S) 

 (1899); Mider, Pam. i^ Gen. Pcdn, p. 09 (1907); Paitek, 



