162 



REPORT — 1878. 



present probably more peculiarities in their distribution tban aDy other 

 group of Chiroptera. Like the Rhinolophidae and Nycteridse, they are 

 strictly limited to the Old World, and scarcely extend anywhere beyond 

 the tropics. Their limitation to the tropical parts is easily explained by 

 a consideration of the fact that there only is found a continuous supply 

 at all seasons of the tree-fruits on which they subsist ; but this does not 

 account for certain peculiarities in their distribution in an eastwardly or 

 westwardly direction. While the family is distributed throughout the 

 Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian regions (except Tasmania and New 

 Zealand), a single genus only, Cynonycteris, extends throughout all these 

 regions. Epomoplwrus, which includes certain species so different from all 

 other Megachiroptera, as to almost necessitate the formation of a distinct 

 subfamily for their reception, is strictly limited to that part of the 

 Ethiopian region included within the continent of Africa. Cynopterus is 

 also limited to the Oriental region ; a single anomalous species, G. latidens 

 (which differs widely from all the other species in the form of its teeth) 

 being found in the Moluccas. Eonycteris is, as yet, known from the 

 Indo-Malayan subregion alone ; Notopteris appears to be limited to the 

 Polynesian subregion ; Harpyia and Cephalotes are characteristic of the 

 Austro-Malayan subregion. 



The distribution of the genus Pteropiis (which includes more than half 

 the whole number of the species of Pteropodidce) is more remarkable than 

 that of any of the other genera of Chiroptera. The Comoro Islands 

 in the Mozambique Channel form its westward limit, thence the species 

 extend throughout the Malagasy subregion, even to the small hurricane- 

 swept island of Rodriguez (from which 1 have lately described a new 

 species), and northwards through the Amirantes and Seychelle Islands 

 to India, where their westward limit is found at the southern frontier of 

 Baluchistan : from India they extend eastwards throughout the Oriental 

 and Australian regions (except Tasmania and New Zealand), inhabiting 

 Polynesia as far eastwards as Samoa and Savage Island. Although one 

 thousand miles of unbroken ocean divide the Seychelle Islands from the 

 Chagos group (the nearest intermediate land to India), the Indian and 

 Madagascar species (Pteropus medius and Pt. edwardsii) are very closely 

 allied ; while, on the other hand, not a single species crosses the narrow 

 channel between the Great Comoro Island and the African coast, although 

 certainly two species (Pteropus edwardsii and Pt. livingstonii), and pro- 

 bably a third (Pt. vulgaris), inhabit the Comoro group. 



The following table exhibits the very remarkable distribution of the 

 species of this genus : — 



