49 
their blood. And if, in the absence of evidence of its sanguivorous 
habits, the investigator had compared the dentition of Desmodus with 
that of any of the Felidae, in which the molars are reduced in 
number, and the premolars and canines greatly developed for the 
purpose of tearing flesh, he would very possibly have supposed that 
there was some analogy between the two, and that the one was a modi- 
fication of the other, each being fitted to the insectivorous or carnivo- 
rous type of structure, on which their respective orders are supposed 
to be based. We are in pretty much the same position with regard 
to the habits and food of the Epomophorus, and can at best only in- 
dicate the kind of diet which would be within the management of its 
teeth. Although there is not, as in Desmodus, a complete absence 
‘of molar teeth, yet they are so imperfect that we are forced to con- 
clude that they are not fitted for the purpose of mastication, in the 
ordinary sense of the word; but we cannot make any use of our 
subsequent knowledge of the habits of Desmodus as any argument in 
the case of Epomophorus, because the general structure of the latter 
proclaims that it strictly pertains to the Phytophagous type, whilst 
that of the former is as strictly Zoophagous. Moreover, the habits 
of Desmodus being understood, and the several peculiarities in its 
structure found in perfect unison with them, it becomes extremely 
easy to see that it is only in the one respect of having merely rudi- 
mentary molars that Epomophurus bears any resemblance to Des- 
modus. Instead of large and trenchant incisors, suitable to serve the 
purpose of lancets, these teeth in Zpomophorus are small and blunt ; 
and the premolars, instead of being rudimentary, are, on the con- 
trary, some of them so developed as to have equal prominence with 
the canines. But, notwithstanding this, we are still precluded from 
supposing that the creature could subsist on food requiring mastica- 
tion, properly speaking ; and the question is, what is the kind of 
food for which the dentition of Hpomophorus is specially adapted ? 
If, in speculating on the uses of the peculiar dentition of Desmodus, 
we happened to make further examination of the parts connected 
with it, we should be able to decide that while the teeth might per- 
form the office of lancets, the lips were modelled to the office of a 
cupping-glass, and that the whole constituted an apparatus admi- 
rably adapted to the sanguivorous habits attributed to the creature. 
The Epomophorus is furnished with lips quite as extraordinary as 
those of the Desmodus. Although simple in form, they are of such 
enormous size as to hang down on each side of the face, almost an 
inch in some of the species; so large are they, that the mouth may 
be sewn up, and the jaws yet move to the full extent that their con- 
struction seems to warrant ; and this, as it appears to me, affords some 
index as to the nature of the food. If for the food of the ordinary 
Pteropi we were to substitute some fruit of an exceedingly succulent 
nature, which would require but a trifling pressure to yield its juices, 
less strong molars would be needed, and consequently jaws of much 
less strength for their implantation, whilst the muscles required to 
work the jaws would be equally reduced in volume. All this we 
find in Epomophorus, and much more, contributing to strengthen 
No. 420.—Procrepincs or THE ZooLoGicaL Society. 
