Dr Smith on a Fruit-Eatinfj Bat of Old Calabar. 369 



TABLE OF MEASUREMEXTS. 



III the allied genus Pteropus we have one very large species, 

 found in the Indo-Malayan subregion designated P. edidis, I 

 suppose, because used for food. These fruit-eating bats now 

 described, are regularly sold for food in the markets of 

 Old Calabar. The fingers and wing membranes being cut 

 off, they are disembowelled, and trussed, two or three being 

 placed together on wooden skewers, like larks, and they are 

 then ready for sale and for being cooked. As long ago as 

 1869 three of these bats, trimmed and trussed together in 

 this way, were given by Dr W. C. Thomson to the late Andrew 

 Murray, Esq., and were presented by him to " The Food Col- 

 lection " in the Bethnal Green Museum, London, where they 

 may still be seen with the following title attached : — 



" Frugivorous or Fruit-Eating Bats {Sp. of Pteropus). 



"As brought into the market, ready trussed for cooking. 

 From Old Calabar, West Africa. Presented in 1869 by 

 Andrew Murray, Eoq." 



