| OCR Text |
Show 546 MR. G. E. DOBSON ON THE GENUS TAPHOZOUS. [Nov. 2, darted awa}*. But I never saw one actually strike the Antennarius. This mode of attack, no doubt, explains why this fish chooses such a position as that observed by m y example. Being very slow in its movements, it protects its posterior parts. Did it not do this it might be seriously injured by an Acanthurus. I have frequently observed m y fishes fight by approaching backwards and lashing at each other with the tail. This will doubtless furnish a good reason for the formidable lateral armature of the tail in the Acronuridse and some other families of fishes. 8. A Monograph of the Genus Taphozous, Geoff. By G. E. DOBSON, M.A., M.B., F.L.S., &c. [Received September 1, 1875.] In 1872 I published some notes on the Asiatic species of Taphozous, giving a short synopsis of the species, in which they were divided into two groups. Since that time I have examined the types and large collections of specimens of the species of this genus in the British Museum, in the Museum of the East-India Company, in the Leyden, Berlin, and Paris Museums, also the collection in the Liverpool Museum and that of Sir Walter Elliot (most kindly forwarded from Scotland for m y examination), as well as some private collections. Adding to these the large collection in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, I have thus examined a great number of specimens of the species of this genus, including the types, and am enabled to remove some nominal species from the list, to describe in detail, and to exhibit, in tabular form, according to their natural affinities, all the species of Taphozous. TAPHOZOUS. Taphozous, Geoffroy, Descript. de l'Egypte, ii. p. 126 ; Temminck, Monogr. Mammal, ii. p. 277 (excl. Taphozous lepturus, Geoff, et Temm.) ; Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. Saugeth. v. p. 684. Muzzle very conical, broad behind, very narrow in front, terminated by the slightly projecting inner margins of the valvular nostrils. Crown of the head very slightly raised above the face-line: a deep frontal excavation between the eyes; ears separate, the inner margin of the conch arising by a short band from the side of the frontal concavity, the outer margin of the conch commencing in a small lobe close to the angle of the mouth but on a lower level; tragus short, narrowest opposite the base of its inner margin, expanded above; lower lip as long or slightly longer than the upper lip, terminating in front in two small triangular naked spaces separated by a more or less deep groove; eyes rather large, a distinct horizontal groove on the face beneath ; thumb with a small but very acute claw ; first phalanx of middle finger folded (in repose) on dorsum of metacarpal bone ; foot long and slender, the outer toe as long as the middle toe, the inner |
