CH. V FAUNA OF TALIS SE 85 



average measurements of the forearms of Ceplmlotes peronii 

 are smaller in the specimens from Manado than those from 

 other parts of the Archipelago (see Appendix A). 



It is difficult to form any very consistent theory to 

 account for these remarkable facts. It may he, however, 

 that the struggle for existence among bats is so keen in 

 Celebes that only the extremely long-winged forms and the 

 extremely short-winged forms have been able to compete in 

 the conditions of Hfe. 



One day, as I was passing the house of one of the man- 

 diirs, I saw a httle boy with a beautiful Httle bat attached 

 to a piece of string. For a small consideration I persuaded 

 him to give it to me, and the next day he brought me 

 another of the same kind. This bat has a body not much 

 larger than that of a mouse, covered with long bright reddish 

 brown hair, and the iris is quite white. It belongs to the 

 variety fulvus of the species PhyUorldna bicolor. It has a 

 very wide distribution, occurring in Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, 

 Amoy, Celebes, Amboyna, but the colour varies from bright 

 yellow to dusky brown. The specimens I obtained in Tahsse 

 are decidedly redder than any of those in the British iluseum 

 or the Eijks Museum at Leyden. 



A few field notes on the birds of Tahsse may not be out 

 of place in this chapter. It is true I cannot add a single 

 new species to the known birds of Celebes, nor can I say 

 much about any birds that are not weU known to the orni- 

 thologist, but my excuse must be that while natm'aHsts in 

 these regions have endeavoured to make their lists of the 

 avifauna as complete as possible, they generally fail to give 

 an idea to the general reader of the birds in any particular 

 spot which are common and of every-day occurrence. My 

 object, then, will not be to give a complete hst of the birds 

 known to inhabit the island of Celebes — for that has 

 already been done by such competent ornithologists as 



