256 



VESPEETILIONID^. 



species, referred to above, have been taken from the Stuttgart 

 Museum specimen. 



a. Pad. sk. (in al.) (type). Fernando Po. T. Thomson, Esq. R.N. [P.]. 



8. SCOTOPHILUS. 



Scotophilus, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soo. xiii. p. 71 (1822) ; Peters, MB. 



Akad. Berl. 18(56, p. 679; Dohson, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 369; Monogr. 



Asiat. Chiropt. p. 119 (1876). 

 Nycticejus, Temminnk, Monogr. Mammal, ii. p. 148 (1835^1); 



Petei-s, Iteise nach Mossamhique, Sdugeth. p. 65 (1852) ; Blyth, 



Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xx. p. 157 (1851) ; Jerdon, Mammals of 



India, p. 37 (1867). 



Muzzle short, obtusely conical, smoothly rounded off, naked; 

 nostrils close together, opening by simple lunate apertures in front 

 or sublaterally, their inner margins projecting; ears longer than 

 broad, generally considerably shorter than the head, with rounded 

 tips, the outer margin terminating behind the angle of the mouth 

 in a distinct convex lobe ; tragus tapering, generally subacutely 

 pointed and curved inwards. 



Tail shorter than the head and body, contained, except the ter- 

 minal rudimentary vertebra, within the interfemoral membrane ; 

 calcaneum weak ; wings attached or close to the base of the toes. 

 Fur generally short and nearly confined to the body ; wing- and in- 

 terfemoral membranes very thick and leathery. 



Skull thick, with prominent crests ; occipital and sagittal crests 

 often forming at their junction behind a thick projecting process, 

 from which the skull slopes evenly downwards and forwards to the 

 end-of the nasal bones in front ; occiput concave, with prominent 

 occipital crest ; facial bones much shortened in front of infraorbital 

 foramina, which are large and well defined ; the bony palate very 

 narrow behind last upper molar, extending backwards as far as the 

 middle of the zygomatic arches ; basioccipital between cochleae 

 broad ; cochleae partially concealed by the tympanic bullae ; paroc- 

 cipital and mastoid processes well developed, prominent (Plate XV. 

 figs. 5-56, 6-66). 



Dentition. Inc. ~, c. ~, pm. ~, m. ^. 



An additional external incisor, on each side above, in the young. 

 Upper incisors long, unicuspidate, acute, close to the canines by 

 their bases ; upper premolar large, exceeding the molars in ver- 

 tical extent, and quite close to the canine ; last upper molar con- 

 sisting of a transverse plate only ; first lower premolar small, 

 crushed in between the canine and second preinolar, which exceeds 

 the molars in vertical extent. All the molar teeth very strong, with 

 acute cusps. 



Range. The Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions. 



This genus, though difficult to define, and approaching Vesperugo, 

 Keys. & Bias., in many points, especially through certain species of 

 that genus, contains a very natural group of Bats of very wide dis- 



