304 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
The head also is pale, and the muzzle shows an orange tint, as do the ears, which are longer than the 
head, and rather acute, with a long pointed tragus, reaching nearly half-way up the ear. But the most 
striking peculiarity of the species consists in the colouring of the wings, which are yellowish-brown, 
dotted with black near the body, and beyond this chiefly blackish-brown, with numerous yellow dots 
arranged more or less regularly in curved lines, while a broad band of brownish-orange, bearing a few 
black dots, follows the course of the fore-arm, and gives origin at the wrist to three other bands of the 
same colour, one running down the margin of the wing and enclosing the first and second fingers, the 
other two following the course of the third and fourth fingers, and thus breaking the dark ground 
colour of the wing into three triangular patches. The occurrence of this peculiar mode of coloration 
in a Bat is the more remarkable as it is reproduced in at least two quite distinct species, namely, the 
Oriental Vespertilio formosus and Kerivoula picta, and in all these must probably subserve the same 
purpose, which Mr. Dobson with much justice supposes to be the protection of the animal by assimi- 
lating its appearance to that of withered leaves. The arms and legs in Welwitscli’s Bat are yellow, 
NEW ZEALAND bat. ( Half natural size. From tlie Proceedings of the Zoological Society.) 
but the feet are black. The interfemoral membrane is yellowish-brown, with a few black dots, 
especially towards its margins. The length of the head and body is about three inches. Of the habits 
of this Bat nothing is recorded. 
THE NEW ZEALAND BAT * 
Two species of Bats have been ascertained to inhabit New Zealand, and both present characters 
which isolate them systematically, just as much as their distant insular habitation does absolutely. 
The present species was discovered by J. B. Forster, the naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook, 
and described by him under the name of Vespertilio tuberculatus. It lias short rounded ears ; there are 
cutaneous lobes at the angles of the mouth, and three true molars on each side in both jaws. The 
upper incisors are in pairs, the inner ones much larger than the outer, and are separated from the 
canines ; the pre-molars are small and pointed, and the molars of the ordinary form in the allied 
genera. The tragus is short, rather broad, and rounded at the tip. The wing-membranes spring from 
the base of the toes ; the interfemoral membrane is large, and contains the long tail, of which the tip 
only projects; and the heel-spurs are long, extending one-third of the distance between the heel and 
the tip of the tail. 
Chalinolobus tuberculatus. 
