102 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
In one of the tombs of Assasif into which I penetrated in 1892 this species occurred 
in vast numbers, apparently to the exclusion of any other species ; when I had so far 
advanced into the tomb that artificial light was necessary, the sensation was as if I 
were in the midst of a cloud of bats. They circled about me with great rapidity, 
occasionally falling half-stunned by flying against my person, sometimes even against 
my face. This disagreeable experience, but more especially the overpoweringly sickening 
stench, intensified by the heat prevailing in the inner recesses of the tomb, drove me 
forth to the fresh air and blue sky. It occurs even in still greater numbers in the 
tombs at Mount Grenfell, opposite Assuan, some of which are rarely or never visited. 
This species has been recorded from Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Southern Syria, and 
Zanzibar; and some years ago I described the subsp. murraiana ^ from Karachi and 
Ilushire, with which the form from Southern Arabia has been identified by Thomas 
These individuals from Arabia are distinguished from those from Egypt by their 
greater size, longer forearms and metacarpals (see Table, p. 101), and consequently greater 
length of wing. The anterior portion of the nose-leaf in all of them is distinctly larger 
than in the typical form. None of the bats found in India are referable to the typical 
form, and it will be observed that even the female from Tor, in the Sinaitic Peninsula, 
conforms to the characters of the foregoing variety. In Egyptian examples of this 
species the forearm measures as follows: in the male, 49, 49’5, 50, and 51 mm. ; and 
in the female, 47, 48, 49 mm.; while the forearm in males from Aden measures 
respectively 54, 54, 58, and 56 mm, 
I am indebted to Prof. Stewart, of the Royal College of Surgeons, for a microscopic 
section of the pubic teats of this species, which reveals the fact that each is furnished 
with a duct into which open numerous secondary ducts lined with columnar epithelium, 
but the existence of glandular structure has not as yet been demonstrated. 
According to Temminck there are some bats from Khartum and Kordofan in the 
Stuttgart Museum, which he states are referable to Ilippobiderus caffer, Sundevall 
1 Cat. Mamm. Ind. Mus. i. 1881, p. 113. 2 Proc. Zool. 8oc. 1900, p. 99. 
2 Qifvers. K. Vet.-Akad. Fdrhandl. iii. 1846, p. 118. 
