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



that can thus be easily distinguished. Some specimens, it is true, are slightly 

 paler, but this is individual variation rather than sexual difference. The 

 wings are dark and measure 10.5 inches (266 mm.) across; the total length 

 is 4 inches (102 mm.). 



As is generally the case in colonies of molossid bats, the females were the 

 more numerous, and they seem to have a definite breeding season. Among 

 those selected from over a hundred there were only four males, in contrast 

 with eighteen females, fourteen of which had each a single medium-sized 

 embryo in the right side of the uterus. Their full stomachs showed that 

 they had fed upon winged termites, which had been so finely chewed that 

 they formed only a greasy paste with a few chitinous particles from thorax 

 and limbs. Termite wings, which drop off so easily, are apparently rejected. 



They have a plump appearance and like most bats of this genus are rather 

 fatty. Since in equatorial regions most of the larger game and even the birds 

 are lean, the natives in spite of the repellent odor exhaled by these bats have 

 so great an appreciation not only for the meat, but especially for the grease 

 which they furnish, that they frequently destroy entire colonies. Very often 

 these bats live in hollow trunks of trees of enormous size or in the hollow 

 portions of their branches. To reach these strongholds, the natives, who 

 could not think of climbing up without assistance, lash light poles one above 

 the other by passing flexible lianas around the trunk. Thus the ascent 

 presents no further difficulty. In this particular case they stuffed dry leaves 

 and sticks into the only exit, some 50 feet from the ground. Setting them 

 on fire they entrapped all the inhabitants, which after much struggling and 

 squeaking fell to the bottom of the hollow. 



Sometimes it happens that a tree catches fire inside, but usually the 

 smoke alone suffocates the unfortunate victims. The natives then cut an 

 opening with their axes near the bottom of the cavity and remove the 

 stupefied and partly burned bats. 



Such hollow trees are usually inhabited by only a single species of bat, 

 but very often one or more of the five species of flying-squirrels (Anomalurus 

 jacksoni, A. pusillus, A. beecrofti, Idiurus zenkeri, I. macrotis) are killed at 

 the same time. Enormous brown roaches also live in the fissures of the 

 decayed wood, and at the bottom of the hole, generally filled with decom- 

 posed debris, the natives find very large beetle larva?, which roasted over 

 the fire are consumed with great delight. 



55. Chaerephon frater sp. nov. 



A rather small and pretty mastiff-bat that measures only 3.46 inches 

 (88 mm.) in length, the sharp-pointed transparent wings expanding to 9.7 

 inches (247 mm.). The chocolate-brown upper side, with a grayish bloom, 



