40 M. C. COOKE ON THE HAIRS OF INDIAN BATS. 



can be placed on tlie examination of the hairs of single specimens 

 in the determination of species. Mr. Blyth's single species in- 

 cludes, as he believes, the three species of Horsfield as well as the 

 three species recognised by Dr. Gray. The hairs of Cynoptenis 

 marginatus and Cynopterus titthcecheilus I cannot distinguish from 

 each other, but those of CynojJterus Horsfieldii offer very marked 

 differences. In all the scales are cup-shaped, and closely set on 

 the shaft. As seen in balsam, they are not like the same objects 

 examined dry, but become exceedingly beautiful from the large and 

 distinct medulla, which is twice as broad in C. marginatus as in C. 

 Horsfieldii^ and the outhne of the hair apparently fringed or 

 barbed, whereas these barbs are but the side view of the scales, 

 the front view being lost in their transparency. These apparent 

 barbs are coarser and more closely appressed in C. Horsfieldii than 

 in C . marginatus. 



I am at a loss to understand the eri-or into which so good an 

 observer as Mr. Quekett must have fallen, when he wrote " the 

 larger kind of hairs, such as are procured from the various species 

 of vampire, are generally of a dark yellow colour, and are com- 

 paratively smooth, externally, but exhibit a cellular structure in- 

 ternally." He has evidently mistaken the large frugivorous bats 

 for vampires, for the kind of hair which he has figured does not be- 

 long to the Asiatic vampires. The genus Megaderma represents 

 the vampire in India, of which Mr. Blyth enumerates three species, 

 one {Megaderma lyra) common in India generally, one {Megaderma 

 Horsfieldii) found in the Tenasserim provinces, and one {Megadeima 

 spasmd) in Malayan countries. The Megaderma schistacea of 

 Hodgson he quotes as identical with 3Iegaderma lyra. 



The hairs of Megaderma lyra have a rather closely serrated 

 margin, the scales being somewhat crowded. The large medtdla 

 is very distinctly seen, even in the dry state, but when mounted in 

 balsam or spirit, the hair appears to consist entirely of a broad 

 medulla and a thin transparent fringed or ciliated margin. The 

 hairs of Megadeima spasma are very similar, and not to be con- 

 founded with those of any other genus except, perhaps, that of 

 Cynopterus. 



Up to this point we have passed through two groups of hairs, 

 nearly according with the zoological divisions of the animals yield- 

 ing "them. (1.) The large frugivorous bats of the genus P^«*o/ws, 

 yielding large, coarse, and almost smooth hairs, scarcely partaking 



