2. PTEROPTIS. 45 



Var. a. 

 Pteropus Wegener, Peters, MB. Akad. Berl. 1876, p. 318. 



Under the above name Dr. Peters has described the skin of an old 

 male received by the Berlin Museum from the Am Islands, which 

 differs from aU known specimens of Pt. melanopogon and its varieties 

 by the shortness of the ears. The face is clothed with short whitish 

 hairs ; crown of the head, neck, throat, breast, and abdomen bright 

 reddish yellow, at the base pale yellow ; the whole back is naked, 

 on the rump a few greyish hairs alone appear ; the wooUy hair on 

 the ventral surface of the antebrachial and wing-membranes red- 

 dish yellow. 



Total length about 15"; head 3"-8, ear 0"-87x0"-6, forearm 

 7"-75, tibia 3"-4, caleaneum l"-0o, foot 2"-4, skuU 3"-6. 



This specimen appears to me to agree so closely with Pteropus 

 melanopogon in size, in the general colour of the fur, and in the 

 nakedness of the back that I really doubt whether it should be con- 

 sidered a variety, even, on account of the comparative shortness of 

 the ears, which, on the whole, according to the measurements given, 

 are scarcely one fifth of an inch shorter than in typical specimens of 

 Pt. melanopogon. The shortness of the ears may well be due, in 

 such an old individual, to a peculiar ulcerative process which often 

 attacks the margins of the ear-conch, causing gradual absorption. 



Var. /3. 



Pteropus melanopogon, var. aruensis et keyensis, Schlegel, Peters, MB. 

 Akad. Berl. 1867, p. 880. 



Ears as in the type of Pt. melanopogon ; fur two inches wide across 

 the middle of the back ; interf emoral membrane quite concealed in the 

 centre ; legs and forearms nearly naked ; head pale yellowish brown, 

 with a few intermixed dark-coloured hairs ; neck bright reddish brown 

 above, dark brown on the sides and beneath ; back silvery yellowish 

 grey ; breast and abdomen yellowish buff, paler posteriorly. 



Female specimens are darker, bright reddish beneath, or reddish 

 brown intermixed with buff, and bright bay on the upper surface of 

 the neck ; back brownish sUvery grey. 



From an inspection of the specimens named by Dr. Peters in the 

 Leyden Musem, the writer has satisfied himself that the skins from 

 the Key Islands are examples of the brighter-coloured males of this 

 variety. 



These specimens, as weU as those in the British Museum collec- 

 tion, have the back well covered, as described above, and the wings 

 appear to arise half an inch apart ; whereas in the typical examples 

 of Pt. melanopogon the wing-membrane appears to arise much closer 

 to the spine, and the back is quite naked and the fur reduced to a 

 mere line along the spine. These might seem to be quite sufficient 

 differences in structure to lead us to consider this form a distinct 

 species ; but the fur of the back evidently disappears with age, and 

 it is impossible in dried specimens to judge of the position of origin 



