236 MAMMALS. 



also found at Timor, AmbojTia ; another, Pteropus Edwardsi, ranges from the Indian and Austra- 

 lian districts, to Madagascar and the Commoro Islands, although it has not been recorded as reaching 

 Africa. The great focus of this family is India, the Malayan region, and the Indian Archij)elago, 

 Sumatra possessing more species than any other island. 



They arc not found either in Eurojie or America. 



Some imperfect remains found in the Solenhofen lithographic stone (oolitic) had been referred 

 by M. Kruger to an extinct species of Pteropus. There is little doubt, however, that they belonged to 

 some one or other of the species of Pterodactyle which are found in that formation. No extinct 

 Pteropine Bat has hitherto been discovered, but it is very probable that they maj^ yet be 

 detected in the countries which they still inhabit, as in the bone-caves of Borneo (deposits full of 

 promise, which have not yet been examined). 



IxsECTivoRous B>.Ts. If no extinct Pteropine Bats have yet been discovered, it is not so 

 with the Insectivorous Bats. Although their remains are no doubt often overlooked, a sufficiency has 

 been discovered to settle definitively that they existed during the upper eocene ej)och, and have con- 

 tinued through all the subsequent periods in very much the same form as at present. They have been 

 found in the Paris gypsum, in the London claj% and in bone-caves and post-glacial deposits in all 

 parts of Europe. Cuvier obtained a tolerably complete skeleton of a species from the gypsiun of Mont- 

 martre, which he named Vespertilio Parisiensis. De Blainville considered it very close to, if not 

 identical with, the living species, V. serotixa. The other remains showed similarly close resemblances, 

 and he thence inferred that the physical condition of Europe was not then materially different 

 from what' it now is ; a conclusion which, although probably true, is scarcely warranted by that fact, 

 for at the present day many species ratige through the most dissimilar climates, as the Rhinolophus 

 FERRiM-EQUixuM, which raugcs from England to the Cape of Good Hope. 



The Insectivorous Bats are divided into two easily distinguished sections. The one (the Ves- 

 PEuni.ioxiD.E), witli tlieir nose and lips not differing from those of other quadrupeds, — whence one 

 of their sectional names, Gymnorhin.t; ; the other having the upper lip or nose expanded into diversi- 

 form prolongations, usually membranous, and bearing resemblance to leaves and other objects, — whence 

 their names, Phyllostoma, Rhinolopiius, Istiophora, &c. It is only the former of these (the 

 Vesperti;,T()xi]).'k) that have left fossil remains in Europe ; but of the latter, which are largely 

 represented in the Tropics both of the Old and the New World, remains of six fossil species have 

 been discovered by Limd in the bone-caves of Brazil. One, if not more of these, has been referred 

 to a species still living in Brazil. Whether justlj^ or not may be a question. 



Nasal-Leab'-Bearixg Bats. (Istiophora.) (Map 68.) — This section contains some of the 

 most bizarre and curious-looking head-pieces that exist on the face of the earth. AVhat the use 

 of the extraordinary processes by which the face of these bats is furnished — (we ought not to 

 say disfigured, but still less can we say adorned) is not known with ccrtaintj' ; but it is supposed 

 rather to be connected with increased delicacy in the sense of touch than that of smell (^Adiicli 

 is the supposition wliich most naturally occurs to one), for tlie leaf-processes are mere re-dupli- 

 cations of the skin, not supplied by any branches of the olfactorjr nerve. As I have just said, 

 they are largely represented in the Tropics, both in the Old and New Worlds, and more feebly the 

 farther we remove from them. And we have a repetition here of what takes place in the Monkeys. 

 They are divided into two great groups, — the Rhinolophi and the Phyllostomata ; the former 

 peculiar to tlie Old World, and the latter to the New. 



