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Show 1880.] ON BATS FROM THE GOTTINGEN MUSEUM. 461 that it is strictly terrestrial and digitigrade; while the powerful muscles of the loins indicate that, when going at speed, it probably moves by a succession of leaps. Mr. Krefft supports these suggestions from actual observations. The stomach of the Cambridge specimen was unfortunately empty; but the food of the animal is no doubt similar to that of its allies, which are stated to feed exclusively on insects and ants. 2. O n some new or rare Species of Chiroptera in the Collection of the Gottingen Museum. By Gr. E. D O B S O N , M . AV M.B., &c. [Eeceived May 31, 1880.] (Plate XLVI.) To the kindness of Prof. Ehlers I owe the opportunity of examining the specimens of Chiroptera in the collection of the Gottingen M u seum, among which I find some representing new or rare species. Of these by far the most remarkable is a specimen of a new species of Meyaderma from Australia, for which, as it is more than double the size of any hitherto described species of that genus, I propose the name of MEGADERMA GIGAS, n. sp. (Plate XLVI.) In general structure externally agreeing very closely with M. spasma, but the relative proportions of parts are somewhat different. Thus the posterior lobe of the tragus, though similarly shaped, is proportionally shorter, while the anterior lobe is much broader at the base, more convex forwards, and obtuse at the tip ; the nose-leaf also, though almost identical in shape, is not much larger than that of that species. While in M. spasma the extremity of the second finger does not extend as far as the middle of the first phalanx of the third finger, in this species, as in M. frons, it extends beyond it. Tail rudimentary; two short vertebrae only project beyond the extremities of theischiatic bones, and are quite concealed between the two layers of integument forming the base of the large interfemoral membrane. Tbe single specimen, an adult male, is very peculiarly coloured, somewhat like the specimen of M. lyra in the writer's collection previously described1. As in it, the general colour of the fur, ears, nose-leaf, and membranes is white, the base of the fur, upon the upper surface only, being pale slate-blue, the colour so characteristic of the genus : unlike the other known species, the extremity of the carpus, the thumb, and the membrane between the thumb and the second finger are clothed with short hairs, in the type specimen of a white colour. The teeth scarcely differ in general form from those of M. spasma ; but, as in the Ethiopian species of this genus, there is no minute 1 Catal. Chiropt. Brit. Mus. p. 157. |