The poorly studied bat fauna of the Fiji Islands is of notable conservation importance because it includes one endemic species, several near endemics, and the best global populations of several threatened species. In addition, some of the species play a keystone role as pollinators and seed dispersers in valuable forest ecosystems. We visited 30 islands of the archipelago to survey bats and assess their conservation status and the potential threats to their continued existence. The Vulnerable Notopteris macdonaldi occurs on the three main islands but may only have nurseries on one of them. The Critically Endangered, endemic Mirimiri acrodonta appears to be restricted to a small montane area on a single island. Pteropus tonganus is consumed throughout rural Fiji but remains common and is not currently threatened by the harvest. The Near Threatened Pteropus samoensis is locally common on the largest islands but threatened on some smaller islands. The Endangered Chaerephon bregullae exists only on two islands and appears to concentrate in a single large colony to nurse young. The Endangered Emballonura semicaudata has declined dramatically in Fiji, as across most of its range, although a few substantial populations remain on some small islands. Factors threatening these species are variable but include small ranges, concentration in a reduced number of colonies, deforestation, over-harvesting, and introduced predators. We propose conservation measures and indicate a number of priority sites.

Leo Delibes was hardly unknown when, in 1866, he was asked by Emile Perrin of the Paris Opera to collaborate with Ludwig Minkus on the music for a new ballet, La Source. Delibes was then thirty years old, held the position of second chorus master at the Opera, and already had to his credit some thirteen operettas, a considerable amount of vocal music on both sacred and secular texts, and some short piano pieces.1 In 1865 he had received the official approbation of the Emperor Napoleon III for a cantata, Alger. Henri de Curzon, one of Delibes' biographers, states that Perrin's request was prompted by the need to get the La Source project out of a tight situation. Minkus, at that time concertmaster at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, had been asked to compose the Source music because his score for Fiammetta had been a success in both London and Paris. Curzon suggests that Minkus had proved not only dilatory, but also wanting in imagination on the basis of the music he did manage to provide. Thus Perrin chose Delibes to help out and the result signaled the commencement of a career as a leading figure in the field of ballet music.2 According to Ivor Guest, La Source was originally divided into two rather than three acts.3 Charles Nuitter, the Opera's archivist, was the author of the scenario and Arthur Saint-Leon was responsible for the choreography, although after the latter's departure for St. Petersburg, Lucien Petipa took charge of rehearsals. There were four tableaux; Minkus was to provide the music for the first and the last, Delibes for the central two. Rehearsals began during the summer of 1866, with Adele Grantzow in the leading role of Naila. After incurring an injury, however, she had to be replaced by