1877. ] FROM DUKE-OF-YORK ISLAND. 115 
Suborder MEGACHIROPTERA. 
Family Prreroprips. 
Group I, Preropt. 
PTEROPUS MELANOPOGON. 
Pteropus phaiops, Temm. Monogr. Mammal. ii. p. 65 (1835-41). 
Pteropus :nelanopogon, Schlegel ; Peters, Monatsber. Akad. Berl. 
1867, p. 330. 
Pteropus melanopogon, var. neohibernicus, Peters, /. c. 1876, p. 317. 
Although the single specimen in the collection is larger and has 
considerably shorter ears than those described under the above name 
by Dr. Peters, I have no hesitation in referring it to the same species, 
as it agrees in all other respects with them and comes from the same 
locality. In size and in the shortness of the ears it agrees more 
closely with P¢. degener, Peters, from the Aru Islands, but differs 
from that species in the much wider space occupied by the hair of 
the back, which is more than an inch in breadth across the loins. 
But in Pt. melanopogon the width of the space occupied by the fur 
of the back diminishes as the animal increases in age ; and the length 
of the ears is not only slightly variable in different individuals of 
every species of the genus, but is often very considerably lessened by 
a peculiar ulcerative process which attacks the margins of the ears. 
I believe therefore that Pt. degener, Peters, has been founded on a 
fully grown or even aged individual of Pt. melanopogon, that Pt. 
melanopogon, var. neohibernicus, has been described from young in- 
dividuals, and that the specimen in this collection is intermediate in 
age between the two. In the following table the relative measure- 
ments of these specimens are given for the purpose of comparison. 


















“lisa ad EA 
. (a | & Siw 
FI ne) r=] a | | 
Sot ahaa ees 
oa 
3 
a o. 
a 4 
A | 
Pt. degener, Peters. Aru in. fim. jin. | in. | in. | in. fim. | in. 
TTB 00 088 on depapes eee capone 38/088) 7-7) ... | ... | 34/108) 2:4] J 
Pt. melanopogon, Dobson. 
New Ireland...............06. 37 |09 | 7:0) 14:0) 9:4) 33/11 | 24) go 
Pt. melanopogon, var. neohiber- 
Macus-Pevers,, WNewLreland,|) jo..{ 1:0) |,.8:03) coat]! wos: |i anncofeen er linwen, |) 22 
| 



The fur in our specimen is dark reddish brow: on the face, be- 
tween the eyes, and under the jaws ; head, neck, shoulders, and the 
Qe 
