892 The Slaty blue Magaderme. [Sept, 



appear to be fbuncL all over the plains of India and its islands, extending 

 thence to Africa ; and wherever found they are as numerous in indivi- 

 duals as scant in species, only three distinct kinds being yet recorded, 

 notwithstanding the immense geographic diffusion of the Genus. The 

 subject of the present paper is however, I believe, a novelty, and to the 

 careful description of it I now proceed. 



The Slaty Megaderme of the Tarai is 3^ inches long from snout to 

 vent, the head, to the occiput, 1^, the ear to the lobe, 1^, the caudal 

 membrane (for there is no tail) 1^, the arm 1^, the forearm 2|-, the 

 longest finger 5, the thigh If, the leg If, the planta and nails, f, the 

 expanse 18, and the weight 2 oz. Sex makes no difference in size or 

 aspect, and immaturity, after the growth is well advanced, little or none. 

 The colour of the fur is, for the most part, a clear deep slaty blue 

 above and sordid buff below, of the membranes deep brown, and of the 

 eye, very dark. Females resemble males. Juniors have the slaty hue 

 less pure or smared with brown. The moderate-sized and depressed 

 head ends bluffly to the front, where the simple and adpressed lips are 

 covered with downy piles and short divergent hairs, except in front of 

 the lower lip which is nude and faintly grooved. Two moderately 

 large and roundish plates are laid flat on the nose, one above and the 

 other below the ovoid nares, which lie hid completely between them, 

 The upper plate becomes at the base of the bridge of the nose some- 

 what narrowed, and then is continued into an erect free process, more 

 or less concave, and divided longitudinally by a central ridge ; the 

 shape of the process being elliptic. The eyes, which have a backward 

 and laterally remote position, are small, but still larger considerably 

 than in the Bats proper or in the Rhinolphes, though less so than in 

 the Pteropines. The immense nude and rounded ears have their bases 

 low down and forward, so as nearly to pass under the eye, where there 

 is a vague antitragal development, and immediately above it, but quite 

 distinct, rises the inner ear consisting of an acute spire, and a small 

 rounded process, in line with it, which latter is sometimes notched on 

 its round edge. The true ears are united over the forehead above half 

 way to their tips and of course can therefore have very little mobility. 

 Nor do the ears exhibit any of that exquisite sensibility for which the 

 ears of the Rhinolphes are so remarkable. The body is muscular and 

 strong with a large sternal keel or crest, and is covered abundantly with 



