1852.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 347 



H. speoris, (Schneider). Vide /. A. S. XIII, 489. Numerous 

 specimens in spirit and also skins. It is remarkable that some exam- 

 ples of this species, also, are very bright rufo-ferruginous or golden- 

 fulvous, others fulvous-brown more or less dark, and others again 

 brown or slaty without a tinge of fulvous, — the ordinary colour (that 

 heretofore described) however predominating, and, in general, it would 

 seern that the brown Ceylon specimens run darker than those of S. 

 India. Moreover, it would seem that the vivid rufous examples both 

 of this and other species are comparatively rare, though from being 

 particularly selected out of multitudes they may accumulate in col- 

 lections. 



H. murinus, (Elliot) : of which there now can be no further doubt 

 that Uhinolophus fulgens, Elliot, v. //. fulvus, Gray, is merely the 

 corresponding vivid rufous phase to those noticed of H. speoris and 

 of the Uhinolophus. Four specimens, all of a blackish tint, thus 

 illustrating the H. ater of Dr. Templeton, and indicating that in the 

 present species (as in the preceding) Ceylon examples run darker than 

 those of S. India.* 



* The observation of these varieties of colour in different Horse-shoe as well as 

 in other genera of Bats shews that colour has been too much regarded in the 

 attempt to discriminate the species of these animals. It is a variation that has long 

 been known in some of the Rhinolophi, and M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire was of 

 opinion that the rufous hue becomes more intense in proportion as these animals 

 inhabit nearer the equator. Indeed, this would seem generally to be the case, 

 though the Australian Rh. aurantiacus of Mr. Gray is stated to rival in the 

 vivid intensity of its colouriDg the * Cocks of the rock' (Rupicola). Numerous 

 examples of the variation in question may here be conveniently adduced. 



Rhinolophus luctus, Tern. (Apparently identical with Rh. perniger, Hodg- 

 son, inhabiting the S. E. Himalaya and the Khasya hills.) Rufous variety, from 

 Manilla, described by MM. Eydoux and Gervais in the Zoology of the voyage 

 of ' la Favorite.' Perhaps also Mr. Gray's Rh. morio from Singapore, the fur 

 described as " reddish brown ;" yet in Mr. Gray's catalogue of the specimens of 

 mammalia in the British Museum, he terms this "the Black Horse-shoe Bat," a 

 name suitable enough for ordinary Rh. luctus. 



Rh. minor (?), Horsfield. The Rh. lepidus, nobis, from Bengal, Masuri, &c, 

 would appear to exemplify the ordinary phase of what we now take to be this 

 species, and Rh. subbadius, Hodgson, to represent the rufous phase. At least Jilt, 

 lepidus and Rh. subbadius prove to differ only in colour, and both seem to be 

 referable to Rh. minor. (Since writing the above, we have observed that Mr. Hodg- 



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