Page:The mammals of Australia Gould vol 3.djvu/145

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RHINOLOPHUS? CERVINUS, Gould.

Fawn-coloured Bat.




I have figured this species as a Rhinolophus with a mark of doubt, being somewhat uncertain as to whether I am correct in placing it in that genus; probably it ought to have been assigned to that of Phyllorhina. Mr. MacGillivray, to whom we are indebted for its discovery, was inclined to think it identical with Rhinolophus aurantius, but upon comparing it with that species, I am convinced it is distinct; I have therefore assigned it a specific appellation, and have selected that of cervinus, in reference to the colouring of the fur. The following notes respecting the animal were communicated to me by Mr. MacGillivray, and as they were made at the time he procured the specimens from which my figures are taken, it will be well perhaps to give them in his own words:—

"Dentition: incisors 1.1/2.2; canines 1.1/1.1; false molars 2.2/2.2; true molars 3.3/3.3 = 14/16 = 30.

"Length: body, exclusive of the tail, 2 inches; fore-arm, 1.7; hind-arm, 0.7; tail, 1; ears, 0.5 long, 0.45 wide; extent of wings, 11 inches.

"Colour: above tawny brown, darkest on the face, head and shoulders; below paler, and tinged on the belly with grey.

"Nose-leaf simple, long, straight-edged, 0.25 across.

"Ears: connected by a hairy fold of skin, large, broadly ovate, pointed; posterior margin slightly sinuated near the tip, then rounded; internally with anterior one-third thickly clothed with hair; tragus obsolete, being indicated merely by a slight internal fold of the auricle.

"Wings naked; index one-jointed, the others three-jointed.

"Tail continued 0.1 beyond the intra-femoral membrane.

"Incisors: above very minute; below larger and three-lobed.

"Canines: strong, booked, sharp, the upper ones the largest.

"False molars: above, first very minute, second large and pointed; below, simple, pointed, the second the largest.

"True molars: first and second in each jaw with five, and the third with four sharp points.

"Habitat: Cape York; also in the sandstone caves on Albany Island, where it occurs in great numbers. The two species do not associate together. Procured October 1848."

The figures are of the natural size.