4. OVNOPTEUUS. 83 



Hah. India generally, from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin ; 

 Ceylon, Andaman Islands, Arracan, Burma, Malay Peninsula, 8iam, 

 Sumatra, Java, BiUiton Island, Borneo, Philippine Islands. 



This Bat is very common in India, and extremely destructive to 

 fruit of aU kinds, especially to guavas, plantains, and mangoes. To 

 a specimen of this Bat, obtained by me at Calcutta, uninjured, I 

 gave a ripe banana, which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly 

 two ounces. The animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, 

 feU upon the fruit, seizing it between the thumbs and the index 

 fingers, and took large mouthfuls out of it, opening the mouth to 

 the fullest extent with extreme voracity. In the space of three 

 hours the whole fruit was consumed. Next morning the Bat was 

 killed, and found to weigh one ounce, half the weight of the food 

 eaten in three hours ! Indeed the animal when eating seemed to 

 be a kind of living mill, the food passing from it almost as fast as 

 devoured, and apparently unaltered, eating being performed alone 

 for the sake of the pleasure of eating. This wiU give some idea of 

 the amount of destruction these Bats are capable of producing 

 among ripe fruits. " In Nipal this Bat is a perfect pest, from the 

 havoc it makes among the ripe pears and guavas. Mr. Hodgson says 

 they are only seen in Nipal about midnight, when they come to feed 

 from very considerable distances. In the plains it is noted of them 

 that they will travel from thirty to forty miles, and as many back, 

 in the course of a single night, in order to procure food " *- 



One of the specimens in the collection, an adult male, from Ceylon, 

 has well-develoj)ed mammae, the teats being as large as in any 

 female during lactation. I have observed an abnormally large size 

 of the mammse in some male specimens of other species of Bats 

 also, and think it probable that where two are born at the same 

 birth, the male may relieve the female of the charge of one of the 

 young ones, and act to it as a nurse. This supposition is 

 strengthened by the consideration that the weight of two young ones 

 would seriously afEect the flight of the female {ykle antea, p. 79). 



a-e. c? & 2 imm. et ad. India. Secretary of State for India 



[P.]. 

 f. ad. sk. India. Leyden Museum. 



y. cJ ad., al. Madras. T. C. JerdonjEscj. [P.]. 



(^Eleutherura ellioti, Gray.) 

 h. cJad., al. Madras. T. E. J. Boileau, Esq.[P.]. 



»;/ ad. sk. Madras. Sir Walter Elliot [P.]. 



{Eleutherm-a ellioti, Gray, ? type.) 

 It, 2 ad.,al. Ceylon. Purchased. 



I. 5 ad., al. Ceylon. Purchased. 



(With foetus in uiero.) 

 m. c? ad., al. Ceylon. Purchased. 



(With well-developed mammse.) 

 n, 0. ad. eks. (one inal.). Pinang. 



P- 



2 ad. sk. Pinang. 



* Hutton, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 693. 



g2 



