322 MR. O. THOMAS ON BATS [Mat. 15, 



It is with considerable reluctance that I find myself compelled to 

 add another species of Pteropus to the long list of those already 

 known ; but the characters of Pt. grandis so entirely fail to fit in with 

 those of any of the hitherto described species, that I have no alter- 

 native but to do so. 



Pt. (jrandis differs from every known species at all approaching 

 its size by its dark maroon-coloured neck, throat, and sides, and by 

 its bright yellow rump. Apart from coloration, again, it differs 

 from Pt. edulis by its much smaller size and broadly edged canines, 

 from Pt.gouldi, aneiteanus, ani poliocephalus by its very much heavier 

 teeth, and from Pt. melanopogon by its smaller teeth and longer 

 pointed ears. On the whole it may be looked upon as most nearly 

 allied to Pt. chrysoproctus, a native of the Moluccas, which resembles 

 it in many of its characters, but differs by having its neck both above 

 and below rich yellow, by its yellowish crown and . dark-coloured 

 rump. The teeth also of Pt. chrysoproctus are smaller and ligbter 

 than in Pt. grandis; the canines are thinner and have narrow 

 postero-internal ledges, and, finally, there is a much greater space 

 between the canines and second premolar below^ the anterior pre- 

 molar having a diameter less than the length of either of the diaste- 

 mata in front of or behind it. 



To another species also Pt. grandis bears a certain amount of 

 resemblance, namely to Pt. rayneri. Gray, also from the Solomon 

 Islands ; but that species has' much shorter ears, and is very far 

 smaller, having a forearm only 13.5 mm. long, a skull only 55 mm. 

 long, and teeth which, although they have very much the same 

 shape and relative proportions as in Pt. grandis, yet differ so 

 markedly in their actual size as to preclude all possibility of the two 

 species being the same. 



2. Pteropus hypomelanus, Temm. 



a. Alu, Shortland Island, 4/86. 



Previously known range, from Borneo to New Guinea. 



This is the first published notice of the occurrence of this species 

 in the Solomon Isles ; but its discovery there was made in 1883, when 

 Surgeon H. B. Guppy, of H.M.S. ' Lark,' obtained and sent to the 

 Museum a specimen, also collected on Shortland Island. 



3. Pteropus rayneri, Gray^. 



Discovered in the islands of San Christoval and Guadalcanar in 



^ I may take this opportunity of stating that an examination of the typical 

 specimen of Pteropus molossinus, Temm., preserved in the Leyden Museum, 

 proves that the Caroline-Island Pteropus described by me in 1882 (P. Z. S. ' 

 1882, p. 756) under the name of Pt. breviceps is not really distinguishable from 

 that species, of which, up to that date, the locality was unknown. I must, 

 however, for my own justification, point out that the shoulder-tufts of Pt. ino- 

 lossinus, instead of being " bright yellow" as has been described, are really of a 

 dark orange-brown, but little in the type, and in my specimens not at all, 

 lighter than the general colour of the body. Nor can I at all fully appreciate 

 the alleged resemblance in dentition between the very small-toothed Pt. molos- 

 sinus (see figures t.c. pi. Iv.) and the large-toothed Pt. aneiteanus and Pt. ju- 

 batiis, the latter of which has the largest teeth of any member of the genus. 



