1875.] MR. G. E. DOBSON ON THE GENUS TAPHOZOUS. 549 
covered with a few hairs; posteriorly the ears are clothed at their 
bases, naked above except where a row of fine hairs fringe the outer 
margin. 
On the upper surface the fur of the body extends upon the wing- 
membrane about one third the length of the humerus and femur, 
4 Taphozous melanopogon. g 
the remainder of the wing- and antebrachial membranes are quite 
naked ; posteriorly the interfemoral is covered thinly almost as far as 
the point where the tail perforates it; inferiorly, the fur of the body 
extends outwards upon the wing-membrane as far as a line joining 
the middle of the humerus and femur; beyond this, as in other species, 
a band of very short fine hair extends along the posterior margin of 
the forearm to the carpus; the feet are naked, except where a few 
hairs arise at the base of the claws on the backs of the terminal 
phalanges of the toes. 
Above, the fur is white at the base, then dark-brown, the extreme 
tips slightly grayish ; beneath, white at the base, then paler brown 
than on the upper surface, the extreme tips grayish. In some 
specimens the white at the base of the hairs beneath is not well 
marked. 
The black beard is not always developed in the males; its develop- 
ment seems to depend on certain conditions as yet not known; pro- 
bably it appears periodically during the rutting-season. In five 
male specimens in the Indian Museum this beard is well developed, 
while out of over one hundred specimens received by M. Milne- 
Edwards from Cochin China, examined by me in the Paris Museum, 
- two only possessed the beard. 
The females of this species (in which neither the black beard nor 
pore-openings are developed) resemble those of 7’. longimanus ; they 
are readily distinguished, however, by the absence of the rudimentary 
gular sac, and by the under surface of the lower jaw being well clothed 
with hair, by the larger ears, and especially by the tail, which is 
thickened and somewhat laterally compressed towards the tip, though 
in every other species of the genus it tapers slightly towards its 
extremity. 
Length: head and body 3!"1 ; tail 1-0; ear 0'"-85, tragus 0'-23 ; 
forearm 2"*5; thumb 0!'35; second finger—metacarp. 2!'2, Ist ph. 
