SKELETON OF INSECTIVOEA. 



387 



250 



Pelvis, Pteroptis. 



251 



processes are reduced to tubercular diapophyses which are not 

 ]:>erforated : the bodies of the vertebra) are dej^ressed and quadrate, 

 ib. B. 



Among the volant Insectivora the vertebral formula, in Ves- 

 pertilio murhius^ gives — 7 cervical, 12 dorsal, 7 lumbar, 3 sacral, 

 and 12 caudal. The chief characteristics of the trunk-skeleton in 

 Bats are : — the gradual diminution of size of the spinal column 

 from the cervical to the sacral regions; the absence of neural 

 spines, a keeled sternum, and a feeble slender 

 pelvis. In a frugivorous Bat {Pteropus fus- 

 cus, fig. 156) I find the following vertebral 

 formula: — 7 cervical, 14 dorsal, 4 lumbar, 

 and 6 sacral. The keel of the laro;e manu- 

 brium sterni is produced into a process at 

 each angle : the three succeeding sternal 

 bones are carinate : seven pairs of ribs di- 

 rectly join the sternum. The narrow sub- 

 cylindrical ilia, fig. 250, a, coalesce with the 

 sacral vertebra3, and are parallel with the 

 spinal column : the pubis, ib. b, is continued in a line with the 

 ilium to the symphysis, 

 ib. c, which is but slightly 

 closed in the male, and 

 remains open in most 

 female Bats. There is a 

 ' pectineal ' process, ib. h, 

 in Pteropus. The ischium, 

 ib. d, joins the last sacral 

 vertebra and defines a 

 sacrosciatic foramen. Tlie 

 acetabula look backward (dorsad) as well as outward. 



B. The Skull. — This, in Pteropus and Galeopithecus, fig. 253, 

 manifests the lissencephalous affinity by the squamosal being per- 

 forated by a venous canal behind the root of the zygoma, by the 

 suspension of the malar, 26, in the zygoma, by the distinct j^etro- 

 tympanic, 28, by the vertical occiput, small cranial cavity, and 

 blended orbital and temporal fossa3. The orbit is partly defined 

 behind by long and slender processes of the frontal, ib. ii, which 

 is perforated by a superciliary foramen. The parietals, ib. 7, 

 usually coalesce at the sagittal suture, but rarely develope a crest. 

 The occipital condyles, ib. 2, are terminal, and the plane of the 

 foramen is vertical. The basioccipital, i , is a subquadrate plate. 

 The lacrymal, ib. 73, is in great part facial. The palatines, 20, 



c c 2 



Skull of Pteroims. 



