(183) 



NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN HATS 



1 I 



water. The question at once arises, therefore, as to the means by 

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

 mainland would readily account for the distribution of the 

 bats » ( v ); & c. 



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

 all the mammals of the Andamans and Nieobars 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 

 descendanls 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 bat 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 available , unsatisfactory 

 though it is. 



The Microchiroptera known to inhabit the Andamans and 

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

 investigation , conveniently be placed under three 1 categories ; — 

 First, Scolopltilus kuhlii (alias temminckii) , Tylonycteris 

 pnehypus, Pipistrellus lickelli, and Miniopterus pusillus; these 

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

 far as they are stated to be common to the Andaman-Nicobars 

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

 be remembered that Andaman or Nicobar individuals of these 

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

 have not, as yet, been sufficiently closely compared with examples 

 from the mainland; it is therefore by tar safer, for the presenl 

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

 nolophus andamanensis and Hipposiderus nicobarensis, each 

 of them known from one specimen only; the former is, as already 

 mentioned above, closely related to, but either specifically or 

 subspeeitically distinct from, Rh. afftnis superans from the 

 Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; the latter is a bat of Hie //. dia- 

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

 camorlae and Hipposiderus nicobarulae ; these arc the only 



(') Gerril S. Miller, .Jr., The Mammals of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Proc. 

 Un St. Nat. Mus. XXIV. ]>. 71)1; 1002. — The italics, in the above quotation, are mine. 



