Zoological Notes from Aneiteum. 7135 



and whole of lower surface, covered with coarse black fur extending a 

 little way on the membranes, thinly covering the shoulders and thighs, 

 but leaving the fore arms and legs nearly bare ; rusty hairs on the sides 

 of the upper jaw, the angle of the lower jaw, between the eyes in a tri- 

 angular space, and at the base of the ears. Ears rounded at the tip, 

 with rather more than the apical half bare. Total length 12 inches ; 

 expanse of membrane 49 ; occiput to tip of nose 3i ; ears l-r\ inch ; 

 fore arm 6 inches ; thumb and claw 2^% ; index 4-^% ; legs 3 ; feet to 

 tip of claw 2-r*(y. 



While one of the great frugivorous bats, P. funereus, has a range ex- 

 tending from New Guinea southwards into Australia, in which country 

 I have met with it in places about 600 miles apart (Port Essington 

 and the Howick Isles), and a second species stretches at least across 

 New Caledonia, having been shot by me both at Port de France on 

 the west and Kanala on the east coasts, and a third (P. Kerandreni) is 

 diffused over the great Archipelago of Fiji, on the little island of Anei- 

 teum, the extreme width of which is less than nine miles, there are two 

 very distinct species of Pteropus which do not intrude upon each 

 other's districts; the smaller one, so far as I can judge, inhabiting the 

 windward, and the other, which I have been describing, the leeward 

 sides of the island. It has not been thought necessary to institute a 

 comparison between these two last, as they need never be confounded 

 with each other. Of the first, specimens were sent to the British 

 Museum six years ago ; but, although I met with the second on one 

 occasion at that period and skinned four individuals, the want of pre- 

 servatives and the intervention of two very hot days before I could get 

 any, compelled me, with much regret, to throw away the skins. Like 

 all other Pteropi I have met with — nine species in all — P. Geddiei is 

 gregarious, and the sexes generally keep apart ; nor could I ever find 

 our when or under what circumstances they meet. At one great place 

 of resort — a thickly wooded bank near the sea — behind a grove of 

 bread-fruit and other trees, these bats are at times to be seen in great 

 numbers, while for weeks, and even months together, there are none 

 in the neighbourhood. At this locality, however, I think their arrival 

 and departure are connected with the ripening of the two annual crops 

 of the bread-fruit, to which they are very destructive. I have never 

 shot any but males at this place, nor have 1 yet met with the female. 

 The Aneiteumese are fond of these bats as food, and used to spin the 

 fur into cordage used in ornamenting the person. Besides occasionally 

 killing them with stones and short sticks, they sometimes catch them 

 in traps similar to those used in fishing— circular, fiat-bottomed baskets 



