Antiquity of the Cheiroptera. 25 



families, the Roussettes or Meganycteres^ the vampires or Phyl- 

 Imtycteres^ and the bats or Normonycteres. The first family is 

 formed of those which have the nose and ears simple, the two 

 first digits or fingers complete, or very little deformed, with no 

 tail or interfemoral ligament, or with these parts very short; the 

 molars also are distinct and very simple. In the second famil}', 

 the first digit alone is complete, the molars are more or less 

 sharply tuberculous, and they have the nose more or less com- 

 plicated at its orifice. In the third family the nose is constantly 

 simple. The species of Roussettes are then arranged by begin- 

 ning with the common Roussettes, which have the head and 

 jaws most elongated, and terminating with the Cephalotes in 

 which they are the least developed ; and between these are in- 

 termediately comprehended the subdivisions named Pachysoma^ 

 Harpiay Hypoderma^ Cynopterus, Epomophora, and Macgro-^ 

 glossa, which being nothing more than successive shades of dif- 

 ference without any influence on the manners and habits, 

 should not, according to him, have been adopted as distinct 

 genera. 



The species of Vampires or Phyllonycteres, beginning with 

 the Glossophaga, and evidently passing to the Macroglossa of 

 the preceding family, and finishing with the Nycteres, which 

 approach very near to the Taphiens of the third family, are di- 

 vided into three principal genera ; viz. the Stenoderma, whose 

 tail and interfemoral membrane are still very short, as in the fa- 

 mily of Meganyctera, comprehending the sub-genera, Glosso- 

 phaga, Desmodus, Stenoderma, which last includes the Dy- 

 phylla, Artiboeus, Madotoeus, and Brachyphylla ; 9.d, the 

 Phyllostoma, whose interfemoral membrane on the contrary is 

 very large, passing beyond the origin of tlie calcaneum, and the 

 more Carnivorous species of which are still further divided in 

 relation to their tail, which at first does not exist, and then be- 

 comes longer and longer in the three genera of Phyllostoma, 

 subdivided into Vampyrus, Monophyllus, and Mormoops ; and 

 8d, The Megaderma and Rhinolophus, subdivided into Rhino- 

 lophus properly so called, Nyctophilus and Nycteris, 



The species of the Bats or Normony teres, which are charac- 

 terized by having a simple nose, and by the almost uniform ex- 

 istence of a long tail, are, from the consideration of this append. 



