8. SCOTOPHILUS. 265 



8. Scotophilus ornatus. 



Nj'cticejus ornatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xx. p. 5] 7. 

 Scotophilus ornatus, Dohson, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 371 ; Monogv. Asiat. 

 Chiropt. p. 124, fig-s. a, h (1876). 



Muzzle broad and obtuse ; glandular prominences of the upper 

 lip weU developed, seminude, bounded behind by a deep groove 

 passing backwards and outwards on either side from the nostrils ; in 

 front of these grooves the long hair covering the head does not pass ; 

 ears moderate, triangular, with broadly rounded tips, outer side with 

 a sKght concavity beneath the tip, then convex, again emarginate 

 opposite the base of the tragus, and terminating in a broadly rounded 

 lobe ; the small wart near the termination of the outer margin is not 

 so well defined as in other species of the genus, and in some specimens 

 is either absent or very small ; tragus long, slightly narrowed above 

 the small triangular lobe at the base, then somewhat expanded and 

 again narrowed towards the tip, which is rounded off or siibacutely 

 pointed, with a famt concavity immediately beneath on the inner 

 margin. TaU long ; last vertebra free. 



Fur light isabelline brown, remarkably pied with white spots ; on 

 the top of the head a small longitudinal patch of pure white ; from 

 the back of the head for two thirds the length of the spine a narrow 

 band of white extends ; at the base of the ears posteriorly a patch 

 of white ; on each side of the body two white patches, one in front 

 of, the other behind the head of the humerus ; on the imder surface 

 a band of white round the neck connects the spots behind each ear, 

 this is succeeded by a band of isabelline brown, followed by a band of 

 white and succeeded by pale brown, which extends to the root of the 

 tail. In a young specimen the general colour is dark isabelline 

 brown, and the narrow band of the same colour round the neck on 

 the under surface is succeeded by glistening silvery white fur, 

 which, becoming greyish posteriorly, extends over the whole ventral 

 surface, interrupted only by a small patch of isabelline brown, on 

 each side, immediately beneath the head of the humerus. 



The position of the white patches is generally very constant ; but 

 their size varies, being greatest apparently in individuals of a pale 

 nist\' red colour ; and these I have always found to be males ; the 

 females have much darker fiir, and the white spots and bands are 

 of less size and are occasionally altogether absent in some places. 



If the skull of S. ornatus be compared with that of a full- 

 grown specimen of S. temmincJcii, the following differences may be 



observed : — 



In S. temmincJcii the superior angle of the occipital crest forms 

 with the sagittal crest a prominent projection; in S.ornatvs this 

 projection is small, the sagittal crest is more developed in front, and 

 the postorbital processes are larger. The frontal in S. ornatus is 

 grooved in the centre ; in S. temminelii it forms a plane surface. 

 In S. ornatus the premaxiUarj' bones are much more developed, and 

 the nasal opening is not half the size of that in S. temmincJcii ; the 

 incisors also are placed at the inner side of the premaxiUaries, and 



