1917.] Lang and Chapin, Field Notes on African Chiroptera. 531 



sabre-toothed tiger offered to zoologists the problem, whether its jaw 

 muscles might have permitted the effective use of its gigantic canines in 

 the normal manner. But even so its jaws would never have been farther 

 apart, relatively speaking, than those of many insectivorous bats. With 

 these it is undoubtedly an adaptation merely to increase the gape, so as to 

 facilitate the gathering of insects during flight, just as with the swallows 

 and goatsuckers. Considering the extraordinary sharpness of their teeth, 

 these tiny bats need no specially strong masseters to deal with their habitual 

 prey of insects. The lower jaw in fact is comparatively weak, there is 

 never any long ascending ramus, for that would make it a practical impossi- 

 bility to open their mouths so wide. A short broadened surface with a 

 rather low coronoid is the general rule for the attachment of the jaw muscles, 

 and the lower part of the mandibular symphysis is often so strengthened 

 that muscles for the lowering of the mandible may act thereon in a special 

 way. The latter features are paralleled to a remarkable degree by the shape 

 of the mandibles of sabre-toothed tigers, but not by other felids. 



These tiny bats too often play an unfortunate part in the amusement 

 of black children, who know their haunts so well that to capture one or more 

 of them becomes a passionate sport. With wing membranes torn these 

 bats can move but slowly on the ground ; but their readiness to defend them- 

 selves with wide-open mouth spurs the youthful tormentors on and makes 

 them capital and entirely inoffensive playthings for youngsters that are to 

 be kept in good humor. Their cruel feelings seem to soar higher and higher 

 as the poor, teased bat becomes more helpless. Not satisfied with merely 

 torturing it in real cannibal fashion, they finally end the troubles of the 

 doomed pipistrelle by spiking it upon a splinter of wood and roasting it alive. 

 Since it is too small to excite the appetite of adults, the children can enjoy 

 the tiny morsels of meat from the breast in unchallenged delight. In this 

 way these savage imps enjoy themselves while their mothers drudge about 

 the plantations in the hot sun. 



32. Pipistrellus abaensis sp. nov. 



The habits and general proportions are so nearly the same as those of 

 P. nanus that no repetition is necessary; the fur however is of a lighter 

 brown color. This species undoubtedly represents a paler form from the 

 bushveldt region of the northeastern Uele district. Our experience shows 

 that its variation in color also includes a dark bone-brown phase, which 

 seems to be as common as among a series of P. nanus. 



It was in the hands of boys that we saw the first fifteen of these bats; 

 among them were two of the darker variety. Since they were all mutilated 



