14 



Mammals of Burma. 



[No. 1, 



According to Horsfield, the Cobego " lives entirely on young fruits and 

 leaves ; those of the cocoa-nut and of Bombax pentandrum are its favourite 

 food, and it commits great injury to the plantations of these, which surround 

 the Tillages of the natives" of Java. In that island it is "confined to 

 particular districts, where it is met with chiefly on isolated hills, covered 

 with a fertile soil, and abounding with young luxuriant trees, the branches 

 of which afford it a safe concealment during the day. As the evening 

 approaches, it leaves its retreat, and is seen in considerable numbers making 

 oblique leaps from one tree to another ; it also discovers itself by a croaking, 

 harsh, disagreeable noise. If an individual is forced from its usual abode, 

 it advances by slight awkward leaps, until it meets with an object on which 

 it can ascend by its claws. " 



This animal occurs in Siam, and is probably far from rare in the valley 

 of the Tenasserim river. By some zoologists it is referred to the order or 

 sub-order Insectivora ; although, it would seem, to no extent an insect-eater, 

 according to all trustworthy observation. 



Order CHIROPTERA. 



Tribe HARPYDIA. 



Harpies or Koussettes ; Frugivorous Bats which do riot hybernate, and are peculiar 

 to warm climates. They have no American representatives. 



Fam. Pteropodidse. 



*12. Pteboptts medius (J. 12). 



Pteropus medius, Temminck, Monog.i.p. 176; Pteropus edwardsii, Geoffroy, Ann. Mus. 

 xv. p. 192 partim, apud Peters. Zen-hwai or Len-wet, Mason. 



The common Indian Roussette, or "Flying-fox." 



Some of the larger species of this genus are by no means well defined 

 apart, if really differing to an extent which should be regarded as specific. 

 Prof. Peters has elaborately monographed the genus Pteropus* and subse- 

 quently the rest of the family, f of which he recognizes ten genera. He admits 

 twenty-six species, with two sub-species, of Pteropus as then known to him. 

 The ordinary Indo-Chinese Roussette is the same as the Indian one, and 

 wherever found varies to some extent in colouring, the back being more or less 



* "Berieht der Akademie zu Berlin," May 27th, 1867. 

 f ibid. Dec. 19th, 1867. 



