90 
THE MAMMALS OE EGYPT. 
provisionally referred by Thomas and Yerbury^ to R. oegyptiacus, as there did not 
seem to them to he any tangible differences between these South-Arabian bats and 
examples from Egypt; further material, however, has shown their true relationship. 
The name R. arabicus is proposed for this form; the specimen in the British 
Museum, s (No. 95.6.1.47), will stand as the type. 
Bats of this genus from Nipal have ears resembling those of bats from Aden and 
Karachi, but their tails are considerably longer. Their skulls, however, are strikingly 
distinct from the skulls of the Arabian bats, and their teeth are smaller. The last 
lower molar also is narrow and elongate, and very different from the more rounded 
last lower molar of R. arabicus. These Himalayan bats have been named by Hodgson 2 
Pteropus pyrivorus ; but of recent years it has been the custom to regard this term as a 
synonym of R. amplexicaudatus, Geoffr. 2 . The specific identity, however, of the Nipal 
bat with the typical R. amplexicaudatus from the island of Timor is impossible to 
accept. The comparison which Dobson instituted between R. oegyptiacus and 
R, amplexicaudatus led to a considerable misunderstanding regarding the relations 
which exist between these forms. This appears self-evident from an examination of 
the materials which he referred to the latter species. The only example in alcohol 
of the typical R. amplexicaudatus to which Dobson had access in the British 
Museum was an adolescent male, which he unfortunately regarded as an adult 
female. This specimen has a long tail like that of the type of the species from 
Timor, which is perfectly distinct from the continental bats referred by Dobson to 
R. amplexicaudatus. 
A stuffed specimen in the British Museum from Timor, and a skin of a bat of about 
the same size from Flores, should be associated Avith a specimen in alcohol from the 
Philippines and with a skin from the same islands The specimens from these three 
localities possess the essential features of R. amplexicaudatus, as each has a long tail, 
much longer than in any of the other specimens associated with them by Dobson. 
Five of the latter from the following localities, viz. the Laos Mountains, Sumatra, 
the Himalayas, and India, are distinguished by short tails and by the dorso-lumbar 
region being covered with hair to a greater extent than in typical R. amplexicaudatus. 
There is also in the British Museum a set of five larger bats, presented by the Leyden 
Museum, but without localities, in which the dorso-lumbar region is covered with 
hair, but much more narrowly than in the other bats. Besides these, there is 
R. seminudus, from Ceylon, with a long, narrow, pointed head and so very little hair 
on its body generally that it was given this appropriate name by Kelaart^. The lobe 
of the ear is well developed in all of these bats. 
1 Proe. Zool. Soe. 1895, p. 545. ^ Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1835, p. 700. 
® Ann. AIus. xv. 1810, p. 96, pi. iv. ^ The tail of this specimen has been lost. 
® Prodr. Paunse Zeylanicge, 1852, p. 27. 
