ON A NEW SPECIES OF PTEROPINE BAT FROM THE 
NEW BRITAIN GROUP. 
By E. Pierson Ramsay. 
The species at present under consideration appears to have been 
overlooked by previous writers on the Chiroptera. Several speci- 
mens occur in a large collection made in the year 1875 by the 
Rev. George Brown in the New Britain Group of Islands. 
Judging by the measurements given by Messrs. Dobson and 
Thomas respectively for Pt. edulis and Pt. yrandis , the present 
species is considerably the largest of the family as yet discovered, 
the total length of the head and body of the largest examples being 
fourteen and a-half inches, and the expanse of the wings sixty-two 
inches, as against twelve and about sixty in Pt. edulis , and thirteen 
in Pt. yrandis .* The forearms of the three species measure, 
however, as follows : — 
Pier opus rufus ... ... 7*24 Inches ... 181 Millim. 
,, edulis... ... 8'80 ,, ... 220 ,, 
,, grand, is ... 6*5 ,, ... 163 ,, 
Pteropus RUFUS, sp. nor. 
Adult female. The general colour is an uniform rusty-red above 
and below, with a narrow streak of a darker shade along the 
margin of the wing-membranes at their attachment to the body. 
The arm (humerus) is clothed at the base with hair similar to that 
on the body, but towards the distal end it becomes scanty and of 
a dull brown tint ; the membrane adjacent to the arm-bones below 
is sparsely sprinkled with dull blackish-brown hair : the basal 
portion of the legs (femora ) is also clothed with hair similar to 
that on the body ; on the back the hair is very much compressed, 
and even more so on a narrow line between the shoulders where 
it is almost black, like the wing-membrane itself ; the hair on the 
hind neck, chest, and breast is longest and grisly ; on the face 
shorter ; the ears, a small space in front of the orbits, and the 
muzzle, naked ; a few straggling long black hairs on the face and 
round the mouth ; the hair on the forehead between the orbits, 
and that on the occiput, is short, slightly compressed, and of a 
lighter sandy yellow tint ; on the throat a darker rufous than 
that of the body. Wing-membranes nearest the back almost 
black, the remaining portions blackish-brown. 
* Mr. Oldfield Thomas does not mention the expanse of the wings in 
this species. 
A— March, 1891, 
