PTEROPODID.K 



653 



This genus is represented by some nine species, which have a 

 distribution very similar to that of Pteropus, except that they 

 extend into Africa, and are not found in Australia and Poly- 

 nesia. X. cegyptiaca inhabits the chambers of the Great Pyramid 

 and other deserted buildings in Egypt, and is probably the species 

 so generally figured in Egyptian frescoes. Fig. 302 exhibits an 

 African species of this genus in the attitude assumed by the Fox- 

 Bats when at rest. 



Boneia. 1 — This genus, as represented by B. bidens of Borneo, 

 differs from Xantha/rpyia in having only a single pair of upper 

 incisors. 



Cynopterus. 2 — Dentition: i -5— r, c f, p :;, m H ; total 32 or 30. 



•2—1 ' 



Muzzle short, grooved like Pteropus in front ; tail and fur generally 

 as in Xantharpyia, but the former sometimes wholly absent. This 

 genus, with seven species, is almost limited to the Oriental region. 

 ('. marginatus is very common in India, and extremely destructive 

 to ripe fruit of every description. Dr. Dobson states that " he 

 gave to a specimen of this Bat obtained at Calcutta a ripe banana, 

 which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly 2 ounces ; the 

 animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, fell upon the 

 fruit, seizing it between the thumbs and the index fingers, and took 

 large mouthfuls out of it, opening the mouth to the fullest extent 

 with extreme voracity. In the space of three hours the whole 

 fruit was consumed. Next morning the Bat Avas killed, and found 

 to weigh one ounce, or half the weight of the food eaten in three 

 hours. Indeed the animal when eating seemed to be a kind of 

 living mill, the food passing from it almost as fast as devoured, 

 and apparently unaltered, eating being, as it were, performed only 

 for the pleasure of eating." 



ffarpyia. 3 — Dentition : i%, c \, p §, m f ; total 24. Premaxilla? 

 Avell developed and united in 

 front ; facial bones much ele- 

 vated above the margin of 

 the jaw, nostrils tubular (Fig. 

 303) ; body and limbs as in 

 Cynopterus. Includes two 

 species from the Austro- 

 Malayan subregion, readily 

 recognised by the peculiar 

 tubular and projecting 

 nostrils, as shown in the 

 accompanying Avoodcut. 



( lephalotes. 4 — Dentition : i 



Fig. 303. — Head of Harpyia major. (From Dobson, 

 Pron. Zool. Soc. 1S77.) 



1 

 1 ■ 



c I> P |j m § ') total 28. Pre- 

 1 Jentink, Notes Leyd. Mus. vol. i. p. 117 (1879). — Amended. - F. Cuvier, 

 Dents des Mammiferes, p. 39 (1825). 3 Illiger, Prodromus Syst. Mamm. ct 



Avium, p. 118 (1811). 4 Geoffrey, Ann. dv. Mn.stum, vol. xvi. p. 99 (1810). 



