1917.] 



Lang and Chapin, Field Notes in African Chiroptera. 



515 



11. Saccolaimus peli (Temminck). 

 Plate XLIX. 



The uniformly blackish or dark-brown color and large size distinguish 

 it at once from all its other African relatives. The somewhat larger females 

 attain a maximum length of 6.12 inches (157 mm.) and a wing-spread of 

 27 inches (685 mm.). Thus Saccolaimus peli has the distinction of being 

 the largest insectivorous bat of the African continent and is approached 

 only by Hipposideros gigas. A semi-circular frill forming the border of a 



Fig. 21. Saccolaimus peli. Wing from above (No. 49350), to show folding of the tip (wing with 

 tip extended shown by dotted line). \. 



peculiar horseshoe-like shallow glandular pouch under the split chin is also 

 an external characteristic, well marked in both sexes. 



When at rest the tips of the wings are folded back on their upper surface 

 in a very curious manner (Fig. 21). The third and longest digit has only 

 two phalanges, of which the proximal one is turned upward but the terminal 

 one backward again. With the wings thus shortened to nearly half their 

 whole length they can, as we have seen in live specimens, climb about more 

 easily in the rough interior of hollow trees when seeking for a propitious place 

 to rest. When wounded and brought to the ground they bite savagely and 

 in trying to escape use their folded wings to great advantage, since with 

 their aid they scurry over the ground much more rapidly than other bats. 



The short free tail, as in all Emballonuridse, is loosely enclosed at its 

 base in the wrinkled interfemoral membrane. Thus in flight, by stretching 

 their hind-limbs, this membrane slipping quite easily over the tail-vertebrae, 

 can be considerably lengthened. So by pulling in or moving out their legs, 



