XXXll INIEODUCTION. 



common to both the Oriental and Australian Regions ; Notopteris 

 appears to be limited to the Polynesian Subregion; Harpyia and 

 Cephalotes are characteristic of the Austro-Malaj'an Subregion. 



The distribution of the genus Pterojms (which includes more 

 than half the whole number of the species of Pteropodidce) is more 

 remarkable than that of any of the other genera of Chiroptera, and 

 is comparable only to that of the Lemurs. The Comoro Islands in 

 the Mozambique Channel form its westward limit, thence the 

 species extend throughout the Malagasy Subregion, even to the 

 small hurricane-swept island of Rodriguez, and northwards through 

 the Amirantes and Seychelle Islands to India, where their westward 

 limit is found at the southern frontier of Baluchistan (see p. 52) ; 

 from India they extend eastwards throughout the Oriental and 

 Australian Regions (except Tasmania and New Zealand), inhabiting 

 Polynesia as far eastwards as Samoa and Savage Island (see p. 16). 

 Although 1000 miles of unbroken ocean divide the Seychelle Islands 

 from the Chagos group (the nearest intermediate land to India), the 

 Indian and Madagascar species (Pterojous meclius and Pt. edwardsii) 

 are very closely allied ; while, on the other hand, not a single 

 species crosses the narrow channel between the Great Comoro 

 Island and the African coast. 



The RliinohpTiidte are limited to the tropical and warmer parts of 

 the temperate zones of the Eastern Hemisphere from Ireland to 

 Japan, from South Africa to New Ireland and Australia. No 

 species has as yet been recorded with certainty from any part of 

 the Polynesian Subregion, from Tasmania, or from New Zealand. 

 With the exception of Rhinolojphus fernim-equinum, which extends 

 throughout the Ethiopian and warmer parts of the Palsearctic 

 Regions, the species of this family inhabiting each of the zoological 

 regions comprised within the area of its distribution are distinct and 

 characteristic. No species of the subfamily Phyllorhinince extends 

 into the Palfearctic Region ; Goelops is limited to the Oriental 

 Region, and RJiinonycteris to the AustraUan : these last two genera, 

 however, include but a single species each. The very remarkable 

 forms Pliyllorhina commersonii and Ph. cyelops belong to the 

 Ethiopian Region, but the former species alone extends also into 

 the Malagasy Subregion. 



The Nycteridce are limited to the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions, 

 one species only passing sHghtly beyond the limits of the latter 

 Region (see p. 158), and none have as yet been found in the 

 Malagasy Subregion of the former. The Ethiopian species of the 



