1887.] FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. 327 



Surgeon Guppy and Mr. Woodford obtained it in considerable 

 numbers. 



For a comparison of the Chiropterous fauna of the Solomons with 

 that of the neighbouring islands, it fortunately happens that the 

 Bats of the nearest group, viz. that of New Britain, New Ireland, and 

 Duke of York, have been fully worked out by Dr. G. E. Dobson^, 

 who based his papers on the specimens obtained in those islands by 

 the Rev. George Brown. These specimens are all in the Natural 

 History Museum, so that I have had the advantage of being able to 

 compare Mr. Woodford's Bats directly with those named by the 

 chief living authority upon Chiroptera. 



The following parallel lists show the species as yet known from 

 the two groups, those marked with an asterisk being peculiar to 

 their respective groups. 



Megachiroptera. 



New-Ireland group. Solomon group. 



Pteropus melanopogon. *Pteropvis grandis. 



capistratus. hypouielanus. 



* rayneri. 



CjTionycteris brachyotis. Cynonycteris bracbyotis. 



Harpyia major. Harpyia major. 



Cephalotes peronii. Ceplialotes peronii. 



Macroglossus minimus. 

 *Melonjcteris melanops. *N'esonycteris woodfordi. 



MiCROCHIROPTERA. 



Phyllorbina trieuspidata. Phyllorhina diadema. 



cervina. — — cervina. 



calcarata. 



*Vesperugo angulatus^. Vesperugo abramus. 

 Kerivoula bardwickii. 



Emballonura nigresoens. Emballonura nigrescena. 



The New-Ireland group has therefore two, and the Solomon group 

 three peculiar species, while there are five species common to both 

 groups, a number that is certain to be largely increased as the 

 islands are more fully explored. The proportion of fruit-eating to 

 insectivorous Bats is larger by a slight fraction in the Solomons than 

 in the other group, a difference only to be expected from the more 

 oceanic position of the former. This position has also resulted, so 

 far as is yet known, in the nearly entire absence of terrestrial Mam- 

 malia in the Solomons, the only other mammals besides Bats known 

 from there being the arboreal and widely-spread discus orientalis, 

 Pall., and a Rat from Florida Island, described by Mr. E. P. Ram- 

 say'. On the other hand, Mr. Brown collected in the New-Ireland 

 group, as recorded by Mr. Alston*, no less than six indigenous 



1 P. Z. S. 1877, p. 114, and 1878, p. 314. 



^ Peters, SB. nat. Freund. 1880, p. 122. Only known to me by tbe original 

 description. 



3 Proo. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. vii. p. 43, 1882. This Eat appears to be a 

 member of tbe arboreal genus Uromys. 



* P. Z. S. 1877, p. 123. 



