1865. | MR, W. OSBURN ON THE BATS OF JAMAICA. 79 
11. Moxossus FUMARIUS*. 
“ Shettlewood (St. James), 14th May, 1859. 
** Three skins; males. The roomy roof of this house inhabited 
by great numbers of this little Bat. My bed-room so offensive with 
their peculiar odour, I was obliged to have every window left open 
at night. This odour is probably stronger at this, the breeding- 
season, than at other times. They kept, so far as I could observe, 
the same hours as our other species. Their apertures of egress were 
under the eaves outside, the room being ceiled within; but little 
parties of a dozen or more would fly in, take an excursion round the 
room, and soon disappear in the fading light of evening and the grey 
of dawn. I sent up a man outside, who got me four or five quarts 
of these Bats. They were all males, the reproductive organs very 
conspicuous, and the gular gland humid and swollen, opening on pres- 
sure like two lips, and a very active circulation visible through the 
internal skin when this opened, giving the appearance of inflam- 
mation. 
** They made no noise, scrambled about very actively when taken 
out of the bamboo-joint which contained them, but made no attempt 
to fly.” 
‘‘ Windsor (Trelawny), 30th May, 1859. 
“IT went this morning, accompanied by a negro with an axe, to 
cut down some of the tall headless trunks of lightning-smitten 
cocoa-nuts that still kept their place in the ranks of the beautiful 
avenues of these noble palms marshalled along the roadside and the 
course of the little river that meanders through the valley. I gave 
directions particularly to fix upon a stem in which a Woodpecker, 
of some generations perhaps, had drilled a hole. It was an im- 
mense trunk, sounder at the bottom than I anticipated, and tock 
good thwacks and many to cut it half through, though the decayed 
top trembled at every stroke. It fell, breaking into dozens of crum- 
bling pieces: ants and wood-boring larve in abundance; but no 
Bats. We then tried another near the road, among the fallen frag- 
ments of which I found three males, all of this species, stunned by 
the fall. The negroes then recollected another trunk near their 
village, where, they reported, dozens flew out every night. It was 
an immense stem. An ants’ nest was attached to it halfway up. 
Many holes, of various sizes, pierced the hard exterior near the top. 
It was evidently of great age. It was broken into fragments by the 
fall, and among them a perfect hetacomb of these little Bats, scat- 
tered into two distinct heaps, corresponding to a higher and lower 
story in the tree. There must have been at least 150 or 200 altogether. 
The heap which occupied the upper hole were exclusively males ; 
those in the lower, females in large proportion, though there seemed 
a male here and there among them. On the ground corresponding 
to the position immediately beneath each heap, scattered on the grass 
or partially contained in fragments of the trunk, was a quantity of 
powder looking like very coarse snuff: this, on examination under 
[* Tomes, /. c. p. 68.—P. L.S.] 
