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Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVII, 



plain view, half a dozen in a group and sometimes 40 to 50 in a grove. The 

 larynx was rather small, and during the several days our ship lay in this 

 harbor we never heard any noise that could be attributed to these bats. 



The range of this species extends from the Kamerun to Angola on the 

 West Coast and across to the East Coast between Zanzibar and 2° north. 



6. Micropteropus pusillus (Peters). 



The first sight of this pigmy among fruit-bats is sure to cause con- 

 siderable surprise. Indeed, measuring only 2.75 inches (70 mm.) in length, 

 with a wing expanse of only 11 inches (279 mm.), it may be compared with a 

 medium-sized insectivorous bat, such as the common American red bat 

 (Lasiurus borealis), though of course the latter has a long tail, whereas 

 Micropteropus is tailless. Its color is medium brown above but very light 

 below. The white tufts at the base of the ear are distinct, and the adult 

 males have epaulets of the same color. 



Though there is one record from the Gaboon, our long experience in the 

 forest, where we never came across this species, leads us to suppose that it 

 occurs only outside in more open country. This is also in accordance with 

 numerous other observations. Its range then extends on the West Coast 

 from Gambia in open places southward to St. Paul de Loanda and probably 

 all along the northern border of the West African rain-forest as far east at 

 least as the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Uele district, the Semliki River and even to 

 the east shore of Lake Victoria. Our specimen was taken near Niangara. 



These and the two following small forms of fruit-bats are probably 

 never as gregarious as their larger relatives nor do they live together in 

 colonies like some of the insectivorous bats. The few we saw were hanging 

 singly or by twos between the leaves of dense bushes, never very high from 

 the ground. Experience shows that they have a much wider range than is 

 generally believed. They have merely escaped the attention of naturalists, 

 who have but scant chances of stirring up these hermits among the fruit 

 bats. Conscious of the perfect protection these small bats are offered 

 everywhere in dense clusters of leaves they are not wary and seldom flutter 

 out' of their hiding places. 



We believed at first that they did not feed on cultivated fruits, such as 

 plantains or bananas, and therefore would be much rarer in the neighbor- 

 hood of villages, where we were most successful in getting acquainted with 

 numbers of the larger species. Later we concluded that they might be found 

 everywhere in suitable places, in the middle of the forest as well as in a bush 

 close to a native hut, but we collected them only in the places where we 

 camped for longer periods. 



