IGC) PROCEEDTNaS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vouxxiv. 
beneath. To carry them, he had simply wrapped them up in a piece 
of the leaf to which they clung, and by the time the}^ were broug'ht in 
all but one were smothered. This one was placed under an inverted 
tumbler, to the vertical surface of which it adhered with ease, the 
vacuum spots under its disks g'listening like globules of quicksilver. 
On July '21 seven more were brought in by a native, who had captured 
them in the same manner as the tirst. He stated that two or three had 
escaped. Of this second lot several weri^ alive and unhurt. Both lots 
contained males, females, and young. The young, although still 
nursing and clinging to their mothers, were a])le to fly with ease. 
The sucking disks having largely usurped the clinging functions of 
the thuinl) and toes, these latter have dwindled to insignificant pro- 
portions, the hind feet l)eing especially weak and partly attached to 
the interf emoral membrane. The disk at the base of the thumb is 
much larger than the one at the ankle, being al)out 3.5 nun. in diameter 
as compared to 2 mm. in the latter. The surface of these disks 
appears to ])e constantly moist, so as insure perfect contact with 
smooth surfaces, and the ])ats cling to the under surface of leaves or 
to the sides of a glass without any effort to use their claws. 
Young nursing bats cling to their mother's neck or breast with 
claws and teeth and are carried al)out as she flies, even when they 
almost equal her in size and when their weight makes her flight labored 
and slow. With this species the sucking disks are of no help in cling- 
ing to fur, and the claws are so small and weak as to be almost useless; 
nevertheless, the young manage to hold on with no risk of falling. 
The mamma? of the female are strap-like, broad and fiat, 3 mm. wide 
by 2 nun. long. Seizing one in his teeth, the young holds on like a 
bulldog, dangling by the strength of his jaws alone. One of the young 
that was brought in hung in this way for twenty minutes, and in all 
that time made no effort to grasp its mother with its claws. 
28. MOLOSSUS RUFUS Geoffroy. 
RUFOUS MOLOSSUS. 
1878. 3folossr(s ruf us DoBSO^, Cat. Chiropt. Brit. Mus., p. 112. 
1897. MoIoHKUfi rufus Allen and Chapman, Bull. Ainer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, p. 14. 
This species is represented by a series of 71 specimens — 44 skins and 
27 alcoholics — consisting of adults of both sexes, as well as veiy imma- 
ture to nearly full-groAvn young. The very j^oung are almost naked 
and the surface of their body is smooth and of a bluish-black color. 
The first coat of hair is invariably black. Among the adults there is 
consideral)le variation in color. In the majority it is some form of red- 
dish brown; but six of tht' adult skins are entirely melani.stic. About 
half of the specimens have a prevailing scal-l)rown coloration. Four 
