wurbagool

plural wurbagools

1. obsoleteAn Indian flying fox (Pteropus medius, syn. Pteropus giganteus), found throughout south Asia.

   Cheiroptera.—Three species of bats, Wurbagool, Pteropus medius; Nyctinomus plicatus; and Rhinolphus Dukhunensis.

   1838, Colonel [William Henry] Sykes, F.R.S., “Special Report on the Statistics of the Four Collectorates of Dukhun, under the British Government”, in Report of the Seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; held at Liverpool in September 1837, volume 6, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 246

   3 more examples

   The Wurbagool. Pteropus Edwardsii, Geoff. Ann. Mus. xv. 92. Temm. Monog. ii. 61. P. medius, Temm. Monog. i. 176. P. leucocephalus, Hodgson. Edwards, Birds, iv. t. 180.

   1843, List of the Specimens of Mammalia in the Collection of the British Museum, London: George Woodfall and Son, →LCCN, page 36

   My attention was one morning directed to a colony of flying foxes (Pteropus edwardsii) […] The natives call this bat the “wurbagool.”

   [1867, Andrew Leith Adams, Wanderings of a naturalist in India: The western Himalayas, and Cashmere, Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, page 15

   ‘Will your honour shoot me one of those wurbagools?’ ¶ ‘Why, what do you want a wurbagool for?’ ¶ ‘You see, my lord, I get rheumatic pains in my leg sometimes, and the bone of a wurbagool tied round the ankle with a string of a black cow’s hair is, they say, the best cure.’

   1877, Robert Armitage Sterndale, Seonee, or Camp Life on the Saptura Range: A Tale of Indian Adventure, 2nd edition, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 194

   Synonyms: greater Indian fruit bat