Dr. E. P. Wright on the Bats of the Seychelles. 437 



this is often the case, yet, as a rule, they are nocturnal in their 

 habits. About an hour before sunset they may be seen flying 

 at great heights from their resting-place in the woods, towards 

 the groves of the tree producing the " fruit de Cy there " 

 [Spondias cytherea) or the mango-trees [Mangifera indica), 

 wliich are generally found growing not far from the dwellings 

 of the planters ; but almost any fruit is equally welcome to 

 them, and they are anything but welcome visitors to the 

 neighbourhood of a fruit-garden. 1 recollect once taking up my 

 position in a secluded spot near some fruit-trees that I knew 

 were each evening visited by the bats : they began to arrive 

 about 5 o'clock ; at first only one or two made their appear- 

 ance, and they took up good places, with plenty of fruit near 

 them, and alighted without noise ; they, like all the others, 

 flew very high, and made as if they were going to cross the 

 island, and then, when just over the group of trees, they fell 

 down as it were among them. By-and-by the arrivals were 

 more numerous, and then the noise began ; for a late comer 

 would try to dislodge an earlier comer, and this not without much 

 growling and grumbling and chattering. A little after sunset 

 the noise was at its highest, and there were no more amvals. 

 At this time I calculated that there were about a hundi-ed and 

 twenty bats in the group of trees. Coming from my place of 

 concealment, I disturbed the multitude, and they fell off" the 

 branches at once, and commenced flying in circles round the 

 trees, gradually returning to their meal as I vanished in the 

 distance. I was told that a Flying Fox with a perfectly black 

 face was to be found on Isle Felicitd ; but though I spent 

 several days on this island, and shot specimens on it of the 

 ordinary P. Edwardsiij I never saw a specimen with a dark 

 face. 



The second bat belonged to the insectivorous suborder, and 

 was very common in the neighbourhood of the town of Port 

 Victoria, though very diflicult to procure. It had a habit of 

 flying round the clumps of bamboo towards twilight, just as the 

 little pipistrelle or the long-eared bat of this country around trees. 

 But in the daytime it was to be found resting in the clefts of 

 the mountain-side facing the sea and with a more or less 

 northern aspect ; and these hiding-places were generally co- 

 vered over with the large fronds of Stevensonia grandifoUa 

 and Verschaffeltia splendida, I sent a specimen of this species 

 to my friend Professor Peters, of Berlin, who informed me that 

 he was writing a monograph of the Cheiroptera ; and he de- 

 scribes it as a new species as follows*: — 



* Monatsbericht der Konigl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 

 June 22, 1868, p. 367. 



