544 



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



nearly grayish towards the abdomen, though the throat, especially in adult 

 males, is very dark brown. The total length is 4.45 inches (113 mm.), about 

 one third of which is occupied by the tail. The wing-spread is 13 inches 

 (331 mm.). The wing, at the base of the first digit, has a smooth pad rather 

 large and well adapted for climbing over the rocks. The males showed a 

 well-developed scrotum close to the base of the penis but there were no 

 pregnant females nor did they have any young. 



A single bat was taken from a hollow tree near Farad je, all the others 

 are from Piaga, some fifteen miles east of Faradje. Here these bats had 

 established their abode in a long, narrow crack running vertically into the 

 rock of a lone hill which rises some 200 feet in height above the surrounding 

 bushveldt. A layer of dried dung, over a foot in thickness right below the 

 fissure, indicated at once that we had to do with a long-established colony. 

 Such hills offer favorite roosts for many kinds of insectivorous bats. 



Some of the more enterprising natives of the nearest Azande village have 

 by common consent assumed the sole right of making periodical raids upon 

 these bats. Since the only entrance is situated on the lower side of the 

 overhanging rock and quite inaccessible, the natives had lashed several poles 

 together to form a rude ladder. Thus they are enabled to stuff heaps of 

 dry grass into the opening, which is only about half a foot wide. When set 

 afire the large amount of smoke produced suffocates the bats by the hundreds 

 and, according to the tales of natives, basketfuls of delicious fatty " birds' r 

 are taken home and consumed as a delicacy. 



These bats had not been disturbed the day Chapin climbed up the hill. 

 He could distinctly hear them squeaking as they moved about inside the 

 pitch-dark cleft. Wanting only a few, he fired three shots blindly up into 

 the crevice and secured all the specimens in our collection. This naturally 

 caused a babel of squeaking and whirring noises; but not a single bat tried 

 to fly outside, though to judge from the commotion it seemed certainly no 

 exaggeration to estimate their number as several hundred. 



This species has hitherto been known only from Malange in northern 

 Angola, where it was collected by Dr. W. J. Ansorge. 



52. Nyctinomus leonis Thomas. 



Similar in size and appearance to N. ochraceus, but much paler, nearly 

 whitish, below. Only two examples were secured, one at Medje, the other 

 at Panga, on the Aruwimi, but the details of the latter's capture show that 

 in habits it resembles N. ochraceus closely. In a swampy forest a couple 

 of miles back of the village a large tree had been found, four feet in diameter, 

 which was hollow from its base upward to a height of 15 yards, with several 

 openings above, but near the ground with only a small hole at one side. 



