XEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN lì ATS 



187 



5. Rlxinolopliii^ alcyoiie, Temm. 

 (PI. Ill figs. 8-14.) 



1853. Rhinolophus àlcyone, Temminck, Esquisses Zoologiques sur la còte 

 (le Guinée, p. 80. (Type locality: Rio Boutry, Gold Coast.) 



cT ad.; preserved in alcohol. Victoria, Gameroons. Collected by Signor 

 Leonardo Fea, 1902. Museo Civico, Genoa. 



Since 1853 the type of Rh. alcyone, in the collection of tlie 

 Leiden Museum (^), has remained unique, and the original de- 

 scription (which probably was intended to be preliminary only) 

 being very vague and fragmentary nobody has been able to 

 identify the species with any degree of certainty. Prof. Peters (^) 

 regarded it as « kaum von Rh. ferrum-equinum verschieden » ; 

 he may have seen the type during one of his visits to Leiden , 

 but, if so, he cannot have examined the skull and dentition. 

 Dobson, in his « Catalogue », has no reference to Rh. alcyoiie. 



An examination of the bat collected by Sr. L. Fea at Victoria, 

 Cameroons, and sent for identification by Marquis D'oria convinced 

 me that it was a species unknown to me, but there was still 

 the possibility that it might be Temminck's Rh. alcyoiie. To 

 decide this question I had to apply for the assistance of Dr. Jen- 

 tink, who with customary kindness favoured me with a series of 

 cranial and external measurements of the type of Rh. alcyone (^) 

 and details aljout its dentition. This valuable information has 

 proved my conjecture to be correct; the Cameroon bat is a second 

 specimen of the hitherto mysterious Rh. alcyone. 



The following is a detailed description of Rh. alcyone, Imsed 

 on the Genoa Museum example: — 



Horse-shoe broad, but not completely covering the upper lip 

 laterally; a minute tooth-like projection on either side of the 

 median notch. Supplementary leaflet present, but firndy connected 

 with the up})er lip. Sella slightly panclurale; front tace densely 

 covered with extremely short white hairs (not easily observable 

 l)y the naked eye). Posterior connecting-process of the Rh. minor 

 type, i. e. projecting, like a small acute triangle, beyond the 



(1) Jemtink, « Catalogue ostéologiquc cles Mammifèros », Mus. cVHist. nat. Pays- 

 Ras, IX. p. 271; Leiden, 1887. — Id., « Catalogue systématique des Mammifères », Mus. 

 d'Hist. nat. Pays-Bas, XII. p. 164; Leiden, 1888. 



(2) Peters, MB. Akad. Berlin, 1871, p. 311. 



(5) These measurements, for Which I have much pleasure in returning my sincere 

 thanks to Dr. Jentink, are printed in the table below, p. 190. 



