784 



Descriptive Notice of the Bat described as Taphozous longimanus, by 

 Gen. Hardwicke. By Edw. Blyth, Curator to the Asiatic Society, 



Upon a former occasion (in vol. X. p. 971 et seq.,) I described 

 three Indian species of Taphozous, doubtfully identifying one of them 

 with the T. longimanus, Hardwicke {Lin. Trans. XIV. 525) ; but I 

 have since obtained a species which I cannot doubt is the animal so 

 named by that naturalist, bringing the number of ascertained Indian 

 species of this genus to four, of which the present is the only one pre- 

 viously known to the publication of my former memoir. It remains, 

 therefore, to impose a distinctive appellation upon the species which I 

 then cited doubtfully as T. longimanus, and which I now propose to 

 designate T. Cantori, in honour of the accomplished naturalist who fa- 

 vored me with the specimen. 



The T. longimanus deviates in some particulars from the detailed 

 account which I gave as of generic application, the ears of this spe- 

 cies not lying flatly outward — as in the Rhinopomata and Dysopodes, 

 and as in the recent T. Cantori, but remaining suberect, as usual in 

 other Vespertilionidce : hence the measurement of nine-tenths of an 

 inch between them, given by Gen. Hardwicke, is intelligible ; whereas 

 in T. Cantori I could not recognise it, nor well understand where it 

 had been taken : again, the tail when exserted by the collapse of the 

 interfemoral membrane does not curl round upward, as in T. Cantori, 

 nor has any tendency that way, but remains out straight, with but 

 slight capability of bending except at its extreme base : the nostrils do 

 not appear capable of closure, which leads me to doubt whether this 

 be truly the case in the other species. I observe, both in the present 

 species and its congeners, two remarkable characters which may be add- 

 ed to the diagnosis of the genus : viz., the double flexure outward 

 of the extremity of the closed wing, which always collapses in this 

 manner, whereas in other Bats the wing does not naturally so fold, 

 but the tip turns inward ; in connexion with which may be mentioned 

 that the first digit in Taphozous consists of but one phalanx termina- 

 ting in a (quasi) joint-knob, whilst in most other Bats (Rhinolophus 

 appears to be an exception) there is a small second phalanx more 

 or less developed beyond this, and in the Pteropodine group two 

 additional phalanges with a terminal claw (the latter only being 

 absent in Cephalotes, Geoff., in which was comprised Hypodermis t 



