36 MammMattia OF INDIA. 
their young at the breast, but some of them have pubic warts resembling 
mamme. The muscles of the chest are developed in proportion, and 
the sternum has a medial ridge something like that of a bird. They 
are all nocturnal, with small eyes (except in the case of the frugivorous 
bats), large ears, and in some cases membranous appendages to the 
nostrils, which may possibly be for the purpose of guiding themselves in 
the dark, for it is proved by experiment that bats are not dependent on 
eyesight for guidance, and one naturalist has remarked that, in a certain 
species of bat which has no facial 
membrane, this delicacy of percep- 
tion was absent. I have noticed 
this in one = species, Cyvopterus 
marginatus, one of which flew into 
my room not long ago, and which 
repeatedly dashed itself against a 
glass door in its efforts to escape. 
I had all the other doors closed. Sternum of Preropus. 
Bats are mostly insectivorous; a 
few are fruit-eaters, such as our common flying-fox. They produce 
from one to two at a birth, which are carried about by the mother and 
suckled at the breast, this peculiarity being one of the anatomical 
details alluded to as claiming for the bats so high a place. 
Bats are divided into four sub-families—/P/eropodide, Vampyride, 
Noctilionide, and Vespertilionide. 
MEGACHIROPTERA. 
SUB-FAMILY PTEROPODID-. 
GENUS PTEROPUS. 
These are frugivorous bats of large size, differing, as remarked by 
Jerdon, so much in their dentition from the insectivorous species that 
they seem to lead through the flying Lemurs (Co/ugos) directly to the 
Quadrumana. The dentition is more adapted to their diet ; they have 
cutting incisors to each jaw, and grinders with flat crowns, and their 
intestines are longer than those of the insectivorous bats. They produce 
but one at birth, and the young ones leave their parents as soon as they 
can provide for themselves. The tongue is covered with rough papillze. 
They have no tail. These bats and some of the following genus, which 
are also frugivorous, are distinguished from the rest of the bats by a 
claw on the first or index finger, which is short. 
I 
Dental formula: Inc., 4; can., —; premolars, : 
4 — 
=? ; molars, 3—3. 
ae Jamo 
