INSECTIVORA. yea 
DescrieTion.—Over the eyes, at the hind corner, a tuft of black 
hair; fur dark brown, above throat and flank brownish-white ; below 
black with white tips. A simple transverse nose-leaf; ears large, ovoid, 
united at base as in Plecotus. 
Size. —Head and body, 1? to 2 inches ; tail, 133,; expanse, 9?. 
We have now concluded our notice of Indian bats but yet much is to 
be discovered concerning them. Very little is known of the habits of 
these small nocturnal animals, only a few of the most familiar large ones 
are such as one can discourse upon in a popular way ; the lives and 
habits of the rest are a blank to us. We see them flit about rapidly in 
the dusky evening, and capture one here and there, but, after a bare 
description, in most cases very uninteresting to all save those who are 
“bat fanciers,” what can be said about them? Many of them have been 
written about for a century, yet how little knowledge has been gained! 
It has been no small labour to collate all the foregoing species, and to 
compare them with various works; it would have been a most difficult 
task but for the assistance I have received from Dr. Dobson’s book, 
which every naturalist should possess if he desires to have a thorough 
record of all the Indian Chiroptera. 
INSECTIVORA. 
These are mostly small animals of, with few exceptions, nocturnal 
habits. 
Their chief characteristic lies in their pointed dentition, which enable 
them to pierce and crush the hard-shelled insects on which they feed. 
The skull is elongated, the bones of the face and jaw especially, and 
those of the latter are comparatively weak. Before we come to the 
teeth we may notice some other peculiarities of this order. 
The limbs are short, feet five-toed and plantigrade, with the entire 
sole placed on the ground in running, and these animals are all 
possessed of clavicles which in the next order are but rudimentary ; in 
this respect they legitimately follow the Bats. The mamme are placed 
under the abdomen, and are more than two. None of them (except 
Tupaia) have a cecum (this genus has been most exhaustively described 
in all its osteological details by Dr. J. Anderson: see his ‘ Anatomical 
and Zoological Researches’); the snout is usually prolonged and 
mobile. The dentition is eccentric, and not always easy to determine ; 
some have long incisors in front, followed by other incisors along the 
sides of their narrow jaws and canines, all shorter than the molars ; 
others have large separated canines, between which are placed small 
