1917.] Lang and Chapin, Field Notes on African Chiroptera. 509 



has a wing-spread of about 21 inches (530 mm.) ; the females are slightly 

 smaller. 



Young in different stages taken during November and January would 

 indicate that they have no definite breeding season, especially as in Novem- 

 ber a female was found having one embryo. 



The larynx of this bat is of normal dimensions, and its note can be heard 

 only a short distance. A captured female when annoyed gave a short 

 whistle, and a chirping sound was often heard by Chapin while waiting at 

 dusk for birds in swampy, wooded places near Faradje. It was repeated 

 with great regularity for some time but would hardly have been ascribed 

 to a bat if we had not had the opportunity of hearing it often. As already 

 stated this was the only fruit-bat common in the region about Faradje, and 

 during daytime was occasionally frightened from its roosts in leafy trees near 

 rivers or swamps. Sometimes they gathered in flocks of 30 or 40 but hung 

 singly or scattered amid the branches of a grove of trees. Securely hooking 

 their sharp claws over a twig, these fruit-bats hang head downward by 

 their straightened legs. Wrapped between the soft folds of their dark 

 wings there is little to be seen of the khaki-colored lump of fur. In fact 

 they often disappear completely between the indistinct blotches of the 

 manifold shadows from the surrounding boughs. If approached during 

 daytime the finely chiseled snout first emerges from its restful pose and 

 the twitching ears and twinkling eyes quickly gather the information 

 that will induce them to take wing (see Plate XLVII). Quite often they 

 were hiding in the dense foliage of rubber-trees (Manihot) but if one was shot 

 all the others would fly off some distance to other trees, in spite of the fur- 

 nace heat and glare of the sun. On two occasions they came into lighted 

 rooms, perhaps in search of bananas hung on the veranda. 



We observed Epomophorus anurus only near Faradje, but its range 

 extends from the northeastern Uele district into the Bahr-el-Ghazal east- 

 ward to Erythrea, across Abyssinia and southward to the Tanganyika. 



5. Epomophorus wahlbergi haldemani (HallowelT). 



This bat is rather similar in appearance to Epomops franqueti franqueti 

 but is smaller and without the light abdominal patch. An adult male 

 measured 5.75 inches (145 mm.) in length and had a wing-spread of about 

 20.5 inches (520 mm.). Its shoulder-pouches were well developed, but 

 drawn in so that the rather short white hair did not show. The edges of 

 the sacs were moist, but they had practically no odor. 



In some of the groves of cocoanut palms on the beach at Cape Lopez 

 these epaulet bats were not shy but hung from the midribs of the leaves in 



