576 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
PETALIIDAE Hollow-faced Bats 
Bats of this family are distinguished by the large oval ears with more or less 
semicircular or crescentic tragus, the sunken area on the rostrum into which the 
nostrils open, and by the long tail, wholly included within the membrane and 
terminating in a Y-shaped border. 
Petalia hispida (Schreber) 
= 
Vespertilio hispidus Schreber, Siiugthiere, vol. 1, p. 169, pl. 56, 1775: Senegal. 
Small, forearm 38 mm.; fur long and fine, of a uniform dull brown; second lower premolar 
very small, upper incisors trifid. Across Central Africa. 
Biittikofer secured one at Schieffelinsville, probably the one whose skeleton 
is recorded by Jentink in his Catalogue Ostéologique, 1887, p. 273, as Nycteris 
macrotis. We obtained a second at our camp on the Du River, July 27. In this 
fresh specimen the nose-leaf, chin, back of the tragus, and the rims of the base of 
the ears were orange yellow, a color character that does not appear to have been 
heretofore recorded and one that serves to distinguish this species in life from 
the next following, which it closely resembles externally. Its total length was 
88 mm., tail 47, foot 9, ear 20.5. 
Petalia arge (Thomas) 
Nycteris arge Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 12, p. 633, 1903: Efulen, Cameroons. 
Similar to the preceding but without orange edges to the foliar expansions, tragus very small; 
the second lower premolar large, equalling in height the anterior cusp of the first molar. Congo to 
Liberia. 
We secured two specimens of this hollow-faced bat which seem to constitute 
the first record for Liberia and form an extension of its known range well to the 
northwestward, into the forest strip of the West Coast. One of our specimens 
was brought in while we were camped on the Du, August 2, the other was found 
in the deep forest at Gbanga, hanging up inside of a huge hollow tree trunk lying 
on the ground. This trunk was hollow from end to end and on looking into it 
we disturbed the bat, which retreated still farther into the middle of its length. 
By crawling into the trunk we were able to shoot the bat, which seemed to be 
the only occupant of this shelter. In a similar prostrate hollow trunk in the 
forest on the Du, we several times startled a single bat, undoubtedly of this 
genus, but on account of the difficulty of seeing into the darkness, the bat always 
evaded our attempts to capture it, and flew out and away into the recesses of the 
forest. Apparently these bats are more or less solitary in habit. 
Petalia grandis (Peters) 
Nycteris grandis Peters, Monatsber. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, 1865, p. 358: Guinea. 
A larger species, similar in color of fur to the other smoky-brown members of the genus, but 
nearly double their size, forearm 57 mm. Zanzibar to West Africa. 
Biittikofer secured a single male in a hollow tree on the Du, and we obtained 
another near our camp on the same river. It was hanging in a small underground 
