238 J. Scully— Ow the Chiroptera of Nepal [No'. 3, 



ference to P. Z. S. 1836, p. 36 ; and, at page 83, Capt. Hutton's misapplied 

 remarks about G. marginatus being a perfect pest in Nepal &c. is re- 

 peated. It is easy to show that both, these entries are erroneous. There 

 is no mention of any bat on page 36 of the Proceedings of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society for 1836 ; the page should be 46, and there will be found the 

 name only of Pteropus pyrivorus, whose characters have to be sought for 

 in the * Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' that is to say, in 

 Hodgson's original description in Vol. IV, 1835. Moreover, Dr. Dobson 

 does not find any specimen of Cynopterus marginatus from Nepal in the 

 British or Indian Museums, Mr. Hodgson never having obtained any 

 example of it in that country. As to Captain Hutton's remarks on the 

 habits of (so-called) Gynopferus marginatus in Nepal, that writer of 

 course knew nothing of the bats of Nepal beyond what he derived from 

 Hodgson's published accounts, and he merely followed Blyth and others 

 in supposing that Pt. pyrivorus was a synonym of G. marginatus. 



About the great distances supposed to be traversed by O. amplexi- 

 caudata in a single night in search of food, I think there is a miscon- 

 ception — at least so far as relates to the Nepal Valley. At the 

 time Mr. Hodgson wrote his account of this species, he was probably 

 not familiar with the Nowakot (or Nayakote) district, about 16 miles 

 only in a direct line from Kathmandu. This part of the country, al- 

 though situated to the north-west of the Nepal Valley, is more than 

 2000 feet lower than the latter ; one part of it, at Devighat, being less 

 than 2000 feet above sea-level. The climate, vegetation, and fauna of 

 this district naturally differ strikingly from those of the Nepal Valley, 

 and here certainly we may expect to find both Pteropus nnedius and 

 Gynon. amplexicaudata quite at home. A glance at any recent large 

 scale map of India will show the broad valley of the Grandak river 

 stretching from the plains into the Nepal hills, and Nowakot in the 

 valley of the Trisul Granga, the eastern affluent of the Grandak. Al- 

 though so far in the interior of the hills, it will readily be understood 

 that, in such hot malarious valleys, we have a direct continuation of the 

 climate and flora suited to G. amplexicaudata. It is no wonder then 

 that this bat should stray from the Nowakot district into the Nepal 

 Valley in search of food, at suitable seasons ; and the supposition of its 

 travelling 40 miles in a direct line over hill and dale, to visit the Nepal 

 Valley at midnight, may be dismissed as improbable. 



Three examples of this species, from Nepal, were presented by Mr. 

 Hodgson to the British Museum, and these were probably the only 

 specimens he obtained in that country. 



