:o6 TlMEHRI. 
stored in the vats. Owing to its small body and its 
flatness, the bat is able to insinuate itself into quite 
small cracks or openings in the boards, which would 
appear to the uninitiated as quite too small for its passage. 
From this perfect shelter and security in the towns, 
these bats have become quite the predominant form, being 
altogether protected from the hawks and the carnivo- 
rous mammals that otherwise might have a chance of 
lessening their numbers under strictly natural conditions. 
They are very frequently to be met with astray, on the 
floor, inside the houses ; and, if undamaged, they shuffle 
actively and quickly along the floor, the tail generally be- 
coming of much use in assisting to propel them forwards, 
though occasionally it is carried turned up in the air. 
The second species of Molossus, is a much larger form, 
the body being more than twice the size of M. obscurus, 
and the colour of its fur of a rich reddish-black. Its in- 
cisor teeth are grouped centrally, and its canines are 
large and powerful. Its tail is also long and prehensile, 
and would seem to be of great use to the animal. This 
is not a house bat ; and its habits are unknown to me, 
beyond the fact that it lives in hollow trees, males and 
females apparently about equally matched. Two males 
and three females were taken from a hollow tree with 105 
specimens of two other widely separated species. 
One of these associated, species, represented in the tree 
by I 1 males and 1 1 females, was the Nottilio leporinus 
This is not a house bat, having been taken only from 
trees in the Botanic Gardens. Its fur is of a strikingly 
rich foxy red colour, the tint becoming deeper at the 
sides of the body under the patagium where small 
glands are situated, from which a strong and powerful 
