PTEROPODIDA 651 
circumstances that the wattles of male gallinaceous birds swell up, 
namely, when engaged in courting the females. Other remarkable 
conditions in which these Bats appear to differ from all other species 
occur in the form of the hyoid bones and larynx. These Bats 
appear to live principally on figs, the juicy contents of which 
their large lips and capacious mouths enable them to swallow 
without loss. 
Pteropus.-_Dentition: i 3, ¢ 4, p 3, m 2; total 34. This 
genus has more than forty species, and thus includes more than 
half the members of the family. All are of large size, and the 
absence of a tail, the long pointed 
muzzle (Fig.301),and the woolly 
fur covering the neck render 
their recognition easy. They 
are commonly known as “Flying 
Foxes,” or Fox-Bats; and one 
of the species (P. edulis) in- 
habiting Java measures 5 feet 
across the fully extended wings, 
and is thus the largest known 
species of the order. All the 
species closely resemble one ne 
another in dentition, and are Fic. 301.—Head Ob BOX Bat (Pleropus personatus). 
mainly distinguished by the From Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866. 
form of the ears and the quality of the fur. P. scapulatus, from 
North-East Australia, approaches the species of the second sub- 
family in the remarkable narrowness of its molars and premolars. 
The range of this genus extends from Madagascar and the 
neighbouring islands through the Seychelles to India, Ceylon, 
Burma, the Malay Archipelago, Southern Japan, New Guinea, 
Australia, and Polynesia (except the Sandwich Islands, Ellice’s 
Group, Gilbert’s Group, Tokelau, and the Low Archipelago). Of 
the islands inhabited by it some are very small and remote from 
any continent, such as Savage Island in the South Pacific and 
Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean. Although two species inhabit the 
Comoro Islands, which are scarcely 200 miles from the African 
coast, not a single species is found in Africa; but in India, 
separated by thousands of miles of almost unbroken ocean, a 
species exceedingly closely allied to the common Madagascar 
Fox-Bat is abundant. The Malay Archipelago and Australia are 
their headquarters; and in some places they occur in countless 
multitudes. Mr. Macgillivray remarks of P. conspicillatus: ‘On 
the wooded slope of a hill on Fitzroy Island I one day fell in with 
this Bat in prodigious numbers, looking while flying in the bright 
sunshine (so unusual for a nocturnal animal) like a large flock of 
1 Geoflroy, Ann. du Muséum, vol. xv. p. 90 (1810).—£zx. Brisson. 
