972 Description of three Indian species of Bat. [No. 120. 



T. perforatus ; a second African species is considered by him to exist 

 in the Doret Volant of Danberton, styled T. Senegaliasis by M. 

 GeofFroy ; and a third has been discovered in Abyssinia by Dr. Ruppell, 

 who names it T. nudiventer ; a fourth is described by M. GeofFroy ; 

 T. Mauritianus ; and the Vespertilio lepturus of Schreber, or V. mar- 

 supialis of Miiller, said to have been brought from Surinam (which 

 is very doubtful, as the form would otherwise appear to be peculiar 

 to the warm regions of the Old World), and which species (accord- 

 ing to Mr. Gray) " scarcely appears to differ" from that first noticed, 

 ^s recognized as T. lepturus by M. Geoffiroy, and as Saccopteryx 

 lepturus, by M. Illiger. Another alleged American species is the 

 T. rufus of Dr. Harlan, founded on the Bat figured in Wilson's Ame- 

 rican Ornithology, on the same plate with the American Eagle owl ; 

 but a glance at this figure is quite enough to shew that the animal 

 belongs to a widely different genus of Bats, and it is supposed by Mr. 

 Gray to be not improbably the Vespertilio pruinosus of the late accom- 

 plished American naturalist, Mr. Say, which Mr. Gray refers to Scoto- 

 philus of Dr. Leach, (synonymous vf'ith. Nycticejus oiM. Raffinestque). 

 The Taphien filet figured in the work on Egypt, is the type of the 

 distinct genus Rhinopoma, and is stated to have been termed a 

 " Taphien" on the plate by mistake. The only Indian species which 

 has yet been described, to my knowledge, is the T. longimanus of the 

 late indefatigable Major General Hardwicke, of which a description and 

 plate are given in the fourteenth volume of the Linnsean Transactions, 

 (p. 525). This is mentioned as being " common in Calcutta, in dark 

 store-rooms ; at night it frequents habitations, attracted by the light of 

 the candles and numerous insects." Finally, in the valuable " Catalogue 

 of Mammalia inhabiting the Southern Mahratta country," published in 

 the Madras Journal of Literature and Science (Nos. 24 and 25), by Walter 

 Elliot, Esq., we are informed that " only one specimen of Taphozous was 

 obtained, of which the description has been lost." (p. 99.) 



The members of this group are distinguished by a conically-shaped 

 head, flattened on the face, and having a large and deep circular concavity 

 between the eyes ; the nostrils are small and terminal, approximated, and 

 capable of closure at the will of the animal ; the ears are widely separat- 

 ed, somewhat triangular, and broad at base, a fold of skin being conti- 

 nued from the base of their upper and fore margin to the border of the 



