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



though the sides are strongly suffused with gray. The narrow band on the 

 under side of the wing membrane near its inner edge is also white. 



Birds of prey sometimes give indirect information to naturalists as to 

 the smaller fauna of a region. The examination of owl pellets, for instance, 

 has often revealed skulls or portions of rodents or small insectivores not 

 previously known to occur there. Few however can claim to have killed 

 a hawk and taken out of its crop, in good condition, four species of bats, 

 three of which were new to science. Yet such was the luck of Chapin at 

 Faradje when he bagged one of the interesting bat-catching hawks, Machce- 

 rhamphus anderssonni (p. 551). Several days previously he had noticed 

 this hawk, but thinking first of an owl, since scarcely any other bird of prey 

 could be active at so late an hour, he was surprised later to recognize this 

 crepuscular hawk. Flying up and down the Dungu River it collected its 

 victims from among the bats that kept close to the surface of the water. 

 Mops (Allomops) faradjius is one of the bats thus discovered and this speci- 

 men remains unique, as no other could be secured. We already knew of 

 this hawk and its habits but confess that we little expected thus to be aided 

 in securing species still unknown. 



68. Mops (Allomops) nanulus sp. nov. 



Among the nineteen species of molossids we collected, this is by far 

 the smallest. It attains only a length of 3.1 inches (78 -mm.), the wing- 

 spread of the dark though slightly transparent wings is 8.75 inches (222 mm.). 

 The general color is dark or rufous brown above, but the under side is much 

 lighter, the neck and a median tract of the belly being usually grayish buff. 



Several evenings before their capture these tiny bats were observed to 

 alight, as it seemed, in a cluster of epiphytic ferns (Asplenium) growing 

 high up on a trunk; but a closer investigation by daylight proved that these 

 plants only concealed the entrance to a cavity. Some burning splinters 

 of wood were pushed down into the narrow entrance, but our efforts to 

 smoke them out proved a complete failure. Before darkness set in some 

 of these little bats were seen to fly out again from the hole in the tree. They 

 evidently did not hunt in the neighborhood since they were not noticed 

 again. We decided to have a hole cut at the base of the cavity, but though 

 two men chopped away during the better part of the day, only towards 

 evening did the hollow portion become accessible. Two bats managed to 

 escape quickly and the natives, discouraged, gave up the task. We asked 

 them however to try fire again before leaving, and were soon gratified to 

 secure seven specimens, which have proved to be of a species previously 

 unknown to science. 



