| OCR Text |
Show 1875.] MR. G. E. DOBSON ON THE GENUS TAPHOZOUS. 549 covered with a few hairs; posteriorly the ears are clothed at their bases, naked above except where a row of fine hairs fringe the outer margin. On the upper surface the fur of the body extends upon the wing-membrane about one third the length of the humerus and femur, Fig. 2. $ Taphozous melanopogon. ^ the remainder of the wing- and antebrachial membranes are quite naked ; posteriorly the interfemoral is covered thinly almost as far as the point where the tail perforates it; inferiorly, the fur of the body extends outwards upon the wing-membrane as far as a line joining the middle of the humerus and femur; beyond this, as in other species, a band of very short fine hair extends along the posterior margin of the forearm to the carpus; the feet are naked, except where a few hairs arise at the base of the claws on the backs of the terminal phalanges of the toes. Above, the fur is white at the base, then dark-brown, the extreme tips slightly grayish; beneath, white at the base, then paler brown than on the upper surface, the extreme tips grayish. In some specimens the white at the base of the hairs beneath is not well marked. The black beard is not always developed in the males ; its development seems to depend on certain conditions as yet not known; probably it appears periodically during the rutting-season. In five male specimens in the Indian Museum this beard is well developed, while out of over one hundred specimens received by M . Milne- Edwards from Cochin China, examined by me in the Paris Museum, two only possessed the beard. The females of this species (in which neither the black beard nor pore-openings are developed) resemble those of T. longimanus ; they are readily distinguished, however, by the absence of the rudimentary gular sac, and by the under surface of the lower jaw being well clothed with hair, by the larger ears, and especially by the tail, which is thickened and somewhat laterally compressed towards the tip, though in every other species of the genus it tapers slightly towards its * Length: head and body 3"* 1 ; taill"*0; ear 0"*85, tragus0"*23; forearm 2"*5 ; thumb 0"*35 ; second finger-metacarp. 2"*2, 1st ph. |
