72 



MAMMALIA. 



Two or three species are known, of moderate but not large size.* One was taken in the act of sucking; blood 

 from the neck of a Horse, by Mr. Darwin. It is probable that their external similitude to the Phyllostomes has 

 occasioned the latter to be accused of a sanguivorous propensity, for which their structure seems to be at 

 most but partially adapted, while that of the present genus is obviously expressly designed for this mode of life. 

 Compare the figures given of the dentition of the two genera.] 



In the second grand tribe of Bats, the index has only one bony phalanx, while all the other fingers 

 have two. This tribe also requires to be divided into several subgenera. 



The Megaderms (Megaderma, Geof.) — 



Have the nasal membrane more complicated than in the Phyllostomes ; the tragus large and most 

 commonly bifurcated ; the conch of the ears very ample, and joined together on the top of the head ; 

 the tongue and the lips smooth ; interfemoral membrane 

 entire, and there is no tail. They have four incisors below, 



but none above, and tlieir intermaxillaries remain carti- jpf |i^p|||v Ajjj|. m^ 



laginous. [Their wings are remarkably ample, the whole M'.'. ' ^\ WA HPt i * *\ 



cutaneous system of these animals being excessively de- 

 veloped. 



Four species are known ; two from Africa, the others from 

 the Indian archipelago. One of the former (31. frons, fig. 14) 

 has the body covered with long hair, of most delicately fine 

 texture ; it constitutes the division Lavia of Gray.] They are 

 distinguished by the figure of the leaf, like the Phyllostomes. 



The Rhinolphines {Rhinolophus, Geof. and Cuv. [Noc/ilio 

 Bechst.]), vulgarly termed Horse-shoe Bats. 



These have the nose furnished with very complicated 

 membranes and crests resting on the forehead, and al- 

 together presenting [more or less] the figure of a horse- 

 shoe ; their tail is long, and placed in the interfemoral 

 membrane. They have four incisors below, and two small 

 ones above, fixed in a cartilaginous intermaxillary. 



Two species are very common in France [and found sparingly 

 and locally in Englandf],— Veap. ferrum-equinum, Lin., or Rh. 

 bifer, Geof., and Vesp. hipposideros, Bechstein. They both 

 inhabit quarries [cathedrals, &c], where they hang solitarily [?] suspended by the feet, and enveloping the n- 

 selves with their wings, so that no part of their body is visible. [They dift'er chiefly in size, but in this con- 

 siderably ; the larger measuring 13 inches across, the other 8$ inches. 



More than twenty species are known, all from 

 the eastern hemisphere. They fall under two 

 divisions, of which the extremes are shown in 

 the accompanying representation (fig. 15) ; but 

 the majority are of intermediate character, like 

 the two which inhabit Europe. Those with 

 membranous crests have the tragus distinct, 

 and sometimes considerably developed; the 

 others have no separated tragus, and compose 

 the divisions Hipposidoros, Gray, (identical with 

 Philtorhina, Bonap.) and Asellia, Gray : Ariteu* 

 of the same systematist referring to a member of 

 the former sub-group, which is destitute of tail, 

 and almost of interfemoral membrane ; charac- 

 ters, however, to which other species approxi- 

 mate. They inhabit the darkest caverns, in vast multitudes, the sexes and young in separate assemblages. 

 Penetrating to more deeply obscure recesses than any of the others, it is probable that their facial appendages are 

 endowed with exquisite sensibility, fo»the still further extension of that delicacy of the sense of touch, by which 

 others of this family are enabled to guide themselves when deprived of vision : the dryness of those membranes 

 intimates that they are not olfactory. Certain inguinal glands, more or less distinctly developed in tlirs* 

 animals, have been erroneously described as mammary teats. 



* There is reason to suspect that the genus Desmodus is much more | t A British locality, where both occur, rather numerously, is tie 

 extensively represented.— Ed. ■ well-known cave near Torquay, in Devonshire, called Kent's Ilutt,. 



Fig. 14. — Megaderma frons. 



Fig. 15. — Rhinolophus nobilis. 



R. insignia 



