NEW OR LITTLE-KXOWX RATS 



183 



water. Tlie question at once arises, therefore, as to the means ])y 

 wliich they have arrived where they now are. Flight from the 

 mainland would readily account for the distribution of the 

 hats » (1); & c. 



Let us now see how far these two suggestions — viz. tliat 

 all the mammals of tlie Andamans and Xicobars are of very 

 recent origin (i. e. not dating back to the period of land connection), 

 and that, consequently, the bats now inhabiting the islands are 

 descendants of individuals which in very recent time, when the 

 distribution of land and water was not essentially different from 

 what now obtains, have crossed the intervening sea — are sup- 

 ported by our knowledge of the l)at fauna of the Archipelago. It 

 must of course be admitted, at once, that the facts on which 

 to base our conclusions are as yet rather fragmentary ; but 

 either we must altogether abstain from discussing the question, 

 or we must argue from the material availaljle , unsatisfactory 

 though it is. 



The Microchiroptera known to inliabit tlie Andamans and 

 Nicobars, nine in number, may, for tlie purpose of tlie present 

 investigation, conveniently be placed under three categories; — 

 First , Scoiophilus kuhlii (alias temrninckii) , Tylonycteris 

 pachypus, Pipistrellus tichelU, and Miniopterus pusillus; these 

 four species might seem to support Mr. Miller's opinion, in so 

 far as they are stated to he common to the Andaman-Xicobars 

 and to some part or other of continental Asia; but it must 

 be remembered that Andaman or Xicobar individuals of these 

 species (which also by Miller were quoted from literature only) , 

 have not, as yet, l^een sufficiently closely compared with examples 

 from the mainland; it is therefore by far safer, for the present 

 purpose, to leave them quite out of consideration. Second, Rhi- 

 nolophus andamanensis and Hipposiderus nicoharensis, each 

 of them known fi^om one specimen only; the former is, as already 

 mentioned above, closely related to, but either specifically or 

 subspecifically distinct from, Rh. afflais superans from the 

 ]^Ialay Peninsula and Sumatra; the latter is a bat of the H. dia- 

 dema type, but indubitably a distinct species. Third, Pipistrellus 

 camortae and Hipposiderus nicobarulae ; these are the only 



(1) Gerrit S. Miller, ,Ir., The Mammals of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Proc. 

 L'n. St. Nat, Mus. XXIV. p. 791; 1902. — The italics, in the above quotation, are mine. 



