264 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



(b) Chief Points in the Distribution of Bats 



The first point to be noticed in the distribution of this 

 extensive Order is, that the members are divisible into two 

 well-marked and easily recognized sections. To the first of 

 these belong the fruit-eating Bats of the family of Ptero- 

 podidse, sometimes recognized as a Sub-order under the 

 title " Megachiroptera." This section contains about 110 

 species, divided into eighteen genera, the whole of which 

 are entirely confined to the tropical and sub-tropical 

 portions of the Eastern Hemisphere, and are quite un- 

 known in the New World. They are spread over the 

 Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions, the African 

 forms, about five in number, being mostly generically 

 distinct and peculiar to that continent. One of the most 

 remarkable of these is Epomophorus, distinguished for 

 its large lips and capacious mouth, of which eleven or 

 twelve species occur in the Ethiopian tropics. In the 

 Oriental and Australian Regions Epomophorus is replaced 

 by Pteropus, with as many as fifty or sixty species. It 

 is a remarkable fact that Pteropus has never reached 

 the African continent, although two of its species occur 

 in the Comoro Islands, only about 200 miles distant from 

 the African coast. 



Passing onwards to the five families of Insectivorous 

 Bats, we find the two first of these, the Rhinolopltidte and 

 Nycteridte also absent in the New World, although they 

 are distributed in larger or smaller numbers over most 

 portions of the Old World, including Australia. The 

 fourth family, Vespertilionidte, which is the most nume- 

 rous group of all, embracing some 200 species and twenty 



