igo8.] Records of the Indian Museum. 163 



The present form is a most distinct and good species, bearing 

 some resemblance to Pteropus celceno in colour only ; and it is owing 

 to this fact, I believe, its supposed identity with that well-known and 

 widely distributed form has been generally accepted, and the specific 

 distinction of the species so long ignored. As a matter of fact 

 Pteropus celcEHO is only a straggler in the Nicobars, and appears to 

 be absent altogether from the whole of the Andaman Islands, all re- 

 cords which have come to us being really founded upon examples 

 of the species now under discussion. From these circumstances it 

 will not perhaps appear so much a matter of speculation that such 

 a characteristic and well-defined type should have escaped earlier 

 notice, 



Dobson, in his paper ''On the Pteropidse of India and its 

 Islands" {Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xlii (1873), p. 198), very cor- 

 rectly expressed much doubt as to whether he was not at fault in 

 associating under the one name both the Nicobar and Andamanese 

 bat; he even went so far as to submit examples to Professor Peters. 

 The vague statement furnished by that authority '' that they agree 

 in the form of the ear and feet" with Zelebor's type in the Vienna 

 Museum led him, we are told, to accept unreservedly this view also, 

 and to unite the two forms. Had he had before him a representa- 

 tive series of specimens he could scarcely have failed to realize the 

 error of a conclusion based as it was upon such slight and unstable 

 characters. 



This species is generally distributed among the islands of the 

 Andaman group ; the stretch of ocean known as Ten-Degree Chan- 

 nel, separating lyittle Andaman from Car-Nicobar, forms its southern 

 barrier. Dr. Anderson was in error when he extended its range to 

 the Nicobars. Through the kindness of Dr. Annandale I have been 

 enabled to examine the original skin, No. 92 f. of the Catalogue, 

 which Anderson records as black, with the nape faintly chestnut, and 

 as coming from the South Nicobars; it fortunately still retains 

 Blyth's label, and this shows Dr. Anderson wrongly transcribed the 

 locality he attributed to it. The specimen is one which was con- 

 tained in the original collection formed by Lieut.-ColonelTy tier, and 

 is, like the rest of the examples in the series, from the Andamans, 

 as the label testifies. Pteropus tytleri occurs on Barren Island, 

 where it shows a tendency to deteriorate in size and further 

 deviates from specimens collected in the type locality by having a 

 light and conspicuous oval-shaped area of greyish hairs occupying 

 the chest and stomach. This is the first recorded instance, I be- 

 heve, of any species of Pteropus having been taken on Barren 

 Island; the specimens were collected by Mr. B. B. Osmaston. 



Description of the type, an adult male {skin), collected on Rutland 

 Island, South Andamans, March ^th, 1907, hy Mr. B. B. 

 Osmaston. 



Ears of medium length, naked, projecting much beyond the 

 short fur ; their anterior and posterior edges nearly equally con- 

 cave, finishing with a bluntly-pointed tip. The whole of the head, 



