Genus Scotophilus
Muzzle short, bluntly conical, devoid of hair; ears longer than broad; tail shorter than the head and body; wing membrane attached to the base of the toes.
Dentition: Inc., 1—1/6; can., 1—1/1—1; premolars, 1—1/2—2; molars 3—3/3—3.
Jerdon’s formula gives upper incisors 4.
No. 92. SCOTOPHILUS FULIGINOSUS.
The Smoky Bat (Jerdon’s No. 40).
Habitat.—Central Nepal.
Description (apud Hodgson).—“Feet very small, included in the wing membrane nearly to the end of the toes; ears acutely pointed, shorter than the head; muzzle groved, nudish; face sharp; rostrum somewhat recurved; wholly sooty brown; a little smaller than Vesp. formosa.”
I cannot find this bat mentioned by any other author, and Jerdon says it does not seem to be recognised.
No. 93. Scotophilus Temminckii.
Syn.—Nycticejus Temminckii (Jerdon).
Habitat.—India generally; Burmah and Ceylon.
Description.—Ears short, rounded and narrow; tragus narrow, curved and pointed inwards; muzzle thick, blunt and conical; the fur varies, sometimes dark olive brown, fulvous beneath, and occasionally chestnut, with a paler shade of yellow below.
Size.—Four and a-half inches, of which the tail is 1½; expanse, 13.
A very common species, appearing early in the evening. Horsfield says of it that it collects by hundreds in hollow trees, and feeds chiefly on white ants.
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