REVIEW. 109 



naturalists, moreover, hold the flying-foxes to be not altogether 

 Brahmans in diet. 



The English nomenclature of the bats is unhappy. It is very 

 inconvenient to any man who has any sense of Greek to find that 

 the "Horse-Shoe Bats" ai'e quite a different set of creatures from 

 the genus Hipposideros, or as our author (who delights in breaking 

 Priscian's head) writes Hipposiderus. 



We want to know more about bats. The best shikar to be had 

 out of them is as follows : — Get a foil (nothing else is fine enough) 

 and go for that bat when he comes into your room o' nights. He 

 dodges landing nets and defies the clumsy bamboo ; but the foil is 

 too fine and smart for him. It's equal to pig-sticking. If he can't 

 rip, he can fly in your face, and does. 



If you walk into a Buddhist cave at midday with a bamboo, or a 

 besom, or anything else, you can generally get bats by swiping 

 into the brown of them, but this is less artistic. 



On the whole, observation of their habits is more wanted than 

 specimens, but of course one must identify. 



After the bats come the Rodents. Pteromys '' Philippensis'^ is 

 very properly discarded for P. Oral, for the same reason as Ursus 

 tibetanus in the last volume, viz., that although the name has 

 priority, it has not got accuracy, the flying squirrel in question not 

 existing in the Philippines. (0 si sic omnia), "Bombay skins are 

 said by Sterndale to be grey." They are grey ; from Khaudesh to 

 to Kanara. "Bus." 



It was to be expected that a lot of our big red squirrels would be 

 clubbed under Sciuriis Indicus. But it is not clear why nothing is 

 said of the mammae in this species, and great stress laid upon their 

 being "6, all inguinal" in the next, S'. hicolor. This oddity runs 

 through the whole set of squirrel descriptions. It may be presumed 

 that Mr. Blanford's authorities and specimens don't usually show 

 the number of mammae; in which case any gentleman reading this, 

 and getting a female squirrel, might do well to note the same in 

 this Journal. 



Our author doubts the specific distinction of 8. 'palmarum and 

 S. tristriatus but retains it, and notes (correcting Jerdon), that the 

 former is often seen on palms. Jerdon, perhaps, never had occasion 



