EOUSETTUS ^GYPTIACUS. 
87 
of the date-palm, wild figs, and other fruit-bearing trees. Hartmann states that it 
migrates southward to a distance not yet clearly known. 
According to Lataste, the Arabs designate this bat under the names ‘ Bouchleida ’ 
and ‘ Turtellil.’ Messrs. Kothschild and Wollaston (Nov. Zool. viii. 1901, p. 398j 
say that all bats are known by the name of ‘ Wat-wat’ at Shendi, on the Upper Nile. 
This species is distributed over the Delta, and along the valley of the Nile into 
Nubia, but how far it extends to the south is unknown. It is present in Cyprus and 
in Syria as far north as the Lebanon district. A bat under this name has been 
recorded from Abyssinia, where it was obtained by Sir William Cornwallis Harris; it 
is still preserved stuffed in the British Museum, but it appears to be more allied to 
B. coUaris than to the Egyptian bat. Dr. Gunther, in describing some mammals from 
Cyprus obtained by the late Lord Lilford, stated in a footnote to his paper i that 
Dobson, who had examined the Pteropine bats in the collection, had agreed with him 
“ in considering them to be R. collarisj' Kotschy, who had previously published a list 
of some of the mammals of Cyprus, had enumerated Pteropus cegyptiacus {B. cegyptiacus) 
as one of the bats found in that island. In view of this. Dr. Gunther remarked that as 
B. cegyptiacus occurred in Egypt and in Syria it might have been expected that the 
fruit-eating bat of Cyprus would have been the same species ; but he added : “ How¬ 
ever, singularly enough, the Cyprian specimens (of which thirty-eight are in the 
collection) exhibit the distinctive character (a somewhat shorter thumb) on account of 
which B. collaris has been separated from B. cegyptiacus. B. collaris has been found 
hitherto only in South Africa and in the Gaboon; and before we admit so singular a 
distribution of two representative species, we must feel disposed to question the specific 
value of the character by which the two forms have been separated.” 
As the only alcoholic specimens of this species in the British Museum, when Dobson 
prepared his Catalogue, were the two male bats from Palestine, the measurements of 
wLich are given in the Table on p. 88, he selected one of them to illustrate the 
characters of the species, but unfortunately the specimens were not adult. I'his is 
clearly proved by the condition of the sutures of their skulls, which are disunited. 
The angle of the lower jaw also has none of the characters of a fully mature individual, 
while at the same time all the permanent teeth are present, but evidently freshly 
through the gum and unworn. In both of these specimens the thumb and the tibia 
are equal in length; but, according to Dobson, the thumb of the male he measured 
was 1-35 inch, while the tibia was 1-25 inch. He consequently came to the conclusion 
that the thumb was usually longer than the tibia ; this, however, was a mistake, as 
the reverse is the case in both B. cegyptiaciis and B. collaris. The close approximation 
in length of the thumb and tibia in the two Palestine specimens is to be explained on 
the ground of their immaturity, as the thumb of this genus is longer in youth than 
^ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 741. 
