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RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
RECURRENCE of MEGADERMA GIGAS , DOBSON. 
By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Zoologist. 
Twenty years ago Dobson described Megaderma gigas , a new 
species of Bat from Australia,* since which time no further example 
has been made known. The type taken at Mount Margaret, 
Wilson’s River, Queensland, is a male and is in the Gottingen 
Museum, 
On the 9th February, the Trustees received from Mr. Fred. Hogan, 
by presentation, a specimen of the same species, taken in thePilbarra 
District, Northern West Australia. This is a female, and presents 
some few differences from the description of the male. The example 
was mounted before reaching us, so that in the following table of 
dimensions, the measurements of the length of the head and body 
are approximate only; the other dimensions are, however, absolute. 
Dobson’s measurements are recorded in inches and tenths — these 
I have reduced to millimetres for comparison with my own figures, 
so expressed. From these it will be seen that the female, which is 
adult, is generally smaller than the male, but the lengths of the tibia 
and the first phalanx of the fifth finger are actually greater; more 
striking, perhaps, is the relative difference in the phalanx of the 
second finger, but this supports and emphasises Dobson’s statement — 
“ While in M. spasma the extremity of the second finger does not 
extend as far as the middle of the first phalanx of the third finger, 
in this species [Jf. gigas ] as in M. fro?is i it extends beyond it.” 
Further evidence that the West Australian example is referable 
to M. gigas is supplied by the circumstance of the extremity of 
the carpus, the thumb, and the membrane between the thumb and 
the second finger being hairy, in which respect it differs from the 
other known species. 
The mammae are two in number ; they are situated one on each 
side of the upper abdominal region. 
The colour does not differ from Dobson’s desciption, but the 
pale grey of the upper surface shows brownish tints in certain 
lights ; there is now no indication of the deep blood-red colour 
at the anterior base of the ears, shown in Dobson’s figure and 
described as being present in the type when obtained, but which 
had apparently faded out before the author saw the specimen. 
* Dobson— Proc. Zool. Soc., 1880, p. 461, pi. xlvi. 
