ALLEN! BATS FROM BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 323 



to the sago, whose long fronds attain often a length of twenty or 

 thirty feet. This palm grows always in the bed of the stream itself, 

 and it was from one of the lower fronds of such a palm that our speci- 

 men was taken. Its superficial resemblance in all but size, to E. 

 ncumanni is very striking, but the white shoulder patches are more 

 prominent, their separate hairs longer than those of the latter, while 

 the belly is slightly paler and the interfemoral membrane naked on its 

 distal half above. 



The range of this small species probably includes most of equatorial 

 Africa, although the majority of recorded specimens are from the 

 western part of the continent. Matschie in nis monograph of the 

 Megachiroptera (1899) records specimens from Ngoroine between 

 Victoria Nyanza and the Guaso Nyiro of Massailand. These were 

 two females collected by O. Neumann. He also includes Heuglin's 

 E. anurus, based on Abyssinian specimens, as a synonym of pusillus. 



Our specimen is a trifle larger than most of the measurements seen: 

 forearm, 57 mm.; tibia, 23.5; hind foot, 17; head and body, 93. 



PETALIIDAE. 



Petalia revoili (Robin). 



Nycteris revoili Robin, Bull. Soc. Philom. France, 1881, ser. 7, 5, p. 90; 

 Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., Apl. 1881, ser. 6, 13, art. 2, p. 3. 



Near our second camp on the Guaso Nyiro there stood at the edge 

 of the stream a large spreading tree whose trunk was hollow. At the 

 ground on one side was an opening large enough to admit a man ; and 

 farther up at about ten feet from the roots, a smaller hole in the side 

 of the trunk where a big limb had been broken off. A small colony 

 of bats lived in this hollow tree and just at dusk they emerged one by 

 one from the hole in the trunk and flitted silently away through the 

 gathering gloom. An examination of the interior by means of a 

 lantern in the daytime showed that no bats were clinging to. the parts 

 of the hollow within sight, but the discharge of a small-bore shotgun 

 into the narrowing recess at the highest part of the decayed trunk 

 brought down a few specimens in a shower of dust. They had appar- 

 ently sought the darkest and most remote portion of their retreat. 

 But four individuals were thus obtained for the rest of the colony 

 had evidently withdrawn beyond reach, and subsequent visits on 

 following days showed that they had summarily deserted their resting- 

 place. 



