520 



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



The type locality of the species being Efulen, Kamerun, the present 

 records extends its range very widely to the east. 



17. Nycteris major {Andersen). 



This large species, whose wings when spread measure 12.25 inches (311 

 mm.) has ears not quite so long as those of N. arge. It was found by us 

 only in the open country, at Faradje and Garamba; but even there it is 

 not common. Strangely enough, the species was described from the Ja 

 River, in the forested part of the Kamerun. 



Megadermid^e. 

 18. Lavia frons affinis Andersen & Wroughton, 

 Plate L. 



The curious orange, yellow, greenish, and brown tints are spread so 

 harmoniously over the huge nose-leaves, the enormous ears, and the broad 

 wings that one is surprised to find such strange beauty in a bat otherwise 

 so modest in its slate-gray, long-haired body. Its length of only 3.12 inches 

 (79 mm.) would be deceptive if compared with that of other insectivorous 

 bats. The tail in the Rhinolophidse is very long, but in the genus Lama 

 is reduced to a coccyx and therefore not visible externally, though the inter- 

 femoral membrane is very well developed (Fig. 22, B) . Even its wing-spread 

 of 15 inches (380 mm.) appears small if one remembers the broad outlines 

 of the bat on the wing. There is a tremendous contrast between the rapid 

 direct flight of Nyctinomus, with its narrow pointed wings, and the unsteady 

 wavy dashes of Lavia frons, with its clumsily rounded wings, — indeed just 

 as between a swift-sailing falcon and a fluttering grouse. 



Adult males have peculiar yellow glands in the skin of the whole lower 

 back, over which the long hair, otherwise slate-gray, assumes a brownish 

 tint, apparently colored by the slightly odorous excretion. Right above the 

 anus the females have two teat-like excrescences (5 mm. in length) common 

 in the Rhinolophidse. 



One large foetus in March and five young taken from October to April, 

 would prove that they have only one young and breed at different periods. 

 We did not notice them from May to August, as they become much less 

 conspicuous when the foliage is denser, but we believe that they reproduce 

 throughout the year. 



