13. NYCTiNOMtrs. 433 



14. Nyctinomus australis. 



Molossua australis, Gray, Mag. Zool. ^ Bot. ii. p. 601 (1838). 

 Nyctinomus australis, Dobson, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 728. 



Ears large, but shorter than the head, their inner margins arising 

 close together on the muzzle from distinct points of origin, as in N. 

 africanus ; integument forming the ear-conch rather thin ; keel very 

 deep in lower third, but short and exceedingly thin, bent upwards 

 and backwards ; margin of the conch straight or slightly concave in 

 superior third ; autitragus very large, triangular, as high as long, 

 posterior margin straight, anterior slightly convex, narrowly rounded 

 off above (Plate XXII. fig. 9) : tragus short and broad, as in N. 

 cegyptiaciis, but its outer margin is distinctly concave about the 

 middle, and there is an obtuse projection at its base. Upper lip 

 with short vertical wrinkles. 



The mouth of a very large gular sac, much larger than in any 

 other hiown species of this genus, extends across the throat from a 

 point on either side near the anterior termination of the antitragus, 

 opening forwards, as in Taplwzous (Plate XXII. fig. 9) ; in the 

 adult male a dense brush of thickened unctuous hairs, equal in 

 length, projects from the mouth of the sac ; in the female the 

 margin of the mouth of the sac is alone developed, and no hairs pro- 

 ject outwards. 



Wing-membrane from the distal third of the tibia. Fur mo- 

 derately long and dense, extending upon the dorsal surface of the 

 ■wing-membrane as far as a line drawn from the middle of the 

 humerus to the distal third of the femur, and a narrow band of 

 shoit hairs extends outwards behind the forearm, becoming wider 

 in the angle between the forearm and the fifth metacarpal bone, 

 along which it extends for half its length, and, passing over it, 

 covers the space between it and the upper third of the fourth meta- 

 carpal ; the interfemoral membrane is clothed ^s far as a line drawn 

 between the knees ; beneath, the wing-membrane is densely covered 

 as far as a line drawn from the middle of the humerus to the knee, 

 the fur ending abruptly, the remaining parts of the membranes 

 beneath almost quite naked. 



Above, dark reddish brown, beneath paler. In the adult male, 

 the fur covering the wing-membrane beneath, between the humerus 

 and femur from the sides of the body outwards, is pure white, con- 

 trasting strongly with the dark brown fur of the body; in the 

 female the fur of the body is darker than in the male, and the white 

 fur on the wing-membrane, along the sides of the body beneath, is 

 largely mixed with brown. 



Upper incisors rather long, separated by a narrow space in the 

 middle ; lower incisors 4, bifid ; first upper premolar minute, in the 

 space between the canine and second premolar, drawn slightly in- 

 wards. 



Length (of an adult d specimen, the type), head and body 3", 

 tan l"-9, tail free from membrane 1", head 1"-15, ear 0-"-9, tragus 



2f 



