890 The Slaty blue Magaderme. [Sept. 



and when the opportunity occurs it should never be neglected, since a 

 great deal of most unprofitable labour in the gradual rectification of 

 those inadequate descriptions which are the inevitable consequence of 

 the ordinarily limited means of observation, is thus prevented. Chance 

 lately threw such an opportunity in my way in regard to a species of 

 the Bat kind ; and, though the 80 genera and innumerable species of 

 the Vespertilionidoe, might well alarm an unprovided field Naturalist 

 like myself, I trust I shall be able to see my way through a fitting 

 description without the spectacles of Library and Museum. 



Arriving recently at the staging Bungalow of Siligori, on the verge 

 of the Sikim Tarai, I found that hospitium scarcely habitable owing to 

 the stench of Bats, and was told that orders had already been issued 

 for the ejection of these unwelcome tenants by the removal of the false 

 roof, between which and the external pent roof the creatures had domi- 

 ciled themselves, so securely and in such numbers that summary 

 measures of ejectment had become indispensable. I waited to see and 

 profit by these measures, and so soon as the false or flat canvas roof 

 was partially removed, I beheld innumerable (2 to 300) Bats clinging 

 in the usual inverted manner to the pent roof. Presently they were 

 most of them on the wing. Many escaped by passing between the 

 wall and eves, their usual way of egress prior to this disturbance. And 

 these fled, freely through the mid-day sun, to the proximate out houses. 

 Many more were struck down by my people whilst attempting to pass 

 out by the doors ; and thus, in half an hour, I became possessed of 

 some 50 to 60 specimens, when the slaughter was suspended by my 

 orders : my specimens and observations then and for 10 previous days 

 having left me nothing further to learn, and the wanton destruction of 

 the poor creatures being shocking to me, how amusing soever to the 

 group of natives, who moreover declared that the Superintendent had 

 commanded the whole to be destroyed. My ample spoils were procured 

 towards the close of February under the circumstances just stated, and 

 the examination of them, coupled with the observations of the prece- 

 ding ten days of my residence at the Bungalow, put me in possession Of 

 the following numerous and decisive particulars as to the habits of the 

 animal, to wit, that this species of Megaderme is extremely gregarious, 

 and dwells in the dark parts of houses and out-houses, not concealed 

 in crannies or holes, but openly suspended from any convenient rest ; 



