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Show 1877.] FROM DUKE-OF-YORK ISLAND. 115 Suborder MEGACHIROPTERA. Family PTEROPID^E. Group I. PTEROPI. PTEROPUS MELANOPOGON. Pteropus phaiops, Temm. Monogr. Mammal, ii. p. 65 (1835-41). Pteropus melanopogon, Schlegel; Peters, Monatsber. Akad. Berl. 1867, p. 330. Pteropus melanopogon, var. neohibernicus, Peters, I. c. 1876, p. 31 7. Although the single specimen in the collection is larger and has considerably shorter ears than those described under the above name by Dr. Peters, I have no hesitation in referring it to the same species, as it agrees in all other respects with them and comes from the same locality. In size and in the shortness of the ears it agrees more closely with Pt. degener, Peters, from the Aru Islands, but differs from that species in the much wider space occupied by the hair of the back, which is more than an inch in breadth across the loins. But in Pt. melanopogon the width of the space occupied by the fur of the back diminishes as the animal increases in age ; and the length of the ears is not only slightly variable in different individuals of every species of the genus, but is often very considerably lessened by a peculiar ulcerative process which attacks the margins of the ears. I believe therefore that Pt. degener, Peters, has been founded on a fully grown or even aged individual of Pt. melanopogon, that Pt. melanopogon, var. neohibernicus, has been described from young individuals, and that, the specimen in this collection is intermediate in age between the two. In the following table the relative measurements of these specimens are given for the purpose of comparison. Pt. degener, Peters. Aru - i Pt. melanopogon, Dobson. Pt. melanopogon, var. neohibernicus, Peters. New Ireland. •d c3 <D .fl «4H o ja -t-j M s h-1 in. 3*8 3*7 u03 0> in. 0*88 0*9 1*1 a sID f-< «o4H in. 7*7 70 50 u CooD 02 in. 14*0 t" CD bO a ^3 <.4oH in. 94 03 •Ag2 '•***! in. 3*4 3*3 a 3 CU a c3 O *o^ in. 1*08 11 <£ IS "3 ••a •*a Oo «*H in. 24 2*4 ... M* m 6 6 o The fur in our specimen is dark reddish brow t on the face, between the eves, and under the jaws ; head, neck, shoulders, and the 8* |