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



we asked the children to show us their haunts. They scampered off into a 

 nearby plantation, and by poking in all the bunches of plantains secured 

 six more. Only three could be prepared for our collection ; of these one was 

 fortunately of the darker phase. 



33. Pipistrellus musciculus Thomas. 



Four years ago Oldfield Thomas when describing this pipistrelle from 

 Bitye, S. Kamerum, 1 said that it was probably the smallest bat yet known. 

 At all events it is smaller than its rather abundant congener, P. nanus, for 

 our specimen, an adult female, measures only 2.45 inches (62 mm.) in total 

 length, of which .87 inches (22 mm.) are to be discounted for the tail, and its 

 little wings stretch but 6.4 inches (162 mm.). In length it is thus exceeded 

 half an inch (12 mm.), on the average, by P. nanus; and a further dis- 

 tinguishing mark is the lighter color of its pelage, a uniform umber-brown. 



In the latter part of February, a period at which even in the Ituri forest 

 there is a spell of dry weather, we were camping in the vicinity of Avakubi 

 beside one of those open muddy areas in the forest, known locally as an 

 " edo," where the elephants and buffaloes come during the rainy season to 

 trample and wallow in the sticky mud. But now the ground had dried out, 

 preserving the deep imprints of gigantic feet; and only a couple of small 

 damp spots remained over which numbers of insects danced and buzzed as 

 we came out of our tent in the early morning. Several times, just as day 

 was beginning to break, we noticed two tiny bats feeding there. Making 

 these spots one end of a swift elliptical course, they snapped at the insects 

 and skimmed off so rapidly as to defy, in this faulty light, either recognition 

 or a successful shot. Then with the increasing day they suddenly vanished. 



One morning however as I stood watching, an upward twist carried the 

 bat close to a stout horizontal limb, about 20 feet from the ground, and 

 immediately it was lost to view. Further inspection showed that this 

 bough had a small knot-hole on the under side; so it was cut off and 

 thrown to the ground. A long hollow traversed it. Chopping into this 

 and poking a long switch through it disclosed a hive of tiny black bees 

 (Trigona) but no bat, and as they munched this tiny store of honey my 

 men began to assure me that my eyes had deceived me. The search was 

 about to be relinquished when we happened to look again at the knot-hole. 

 Just on the other side in a shallow cavity there crouched this insignificant 

 little creature alive and quite uninjured in spite of its fall. So far as we 



i Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (8), XI, 1913, p. 316. 



