Liberia <•- 



males) have glands at the junction of the neck and shoulder 

 from the mouths of which project long, coarse yellow hairs, 

 which grow down so as to form tufts or epaulets on the bat's 

 shoulders. 



Two or three species of the genus Roussettus {Xantharpyia) 

 are recorded from Liberia — R. collaris, R. stramineus, and perhaps 

 R. buettikoferi} 



The bats of this genus, as already stated, have a short tail 

 like some of the Epomophores, the tip of which is free from 

 the wing membrane. The muzzle is rather long and slender. 

 The males have a gland on each shoulder like that of the 

 Epomophores, and from the aperture of this gland radiate long 

 hairs, which in R. stramineus form almost a half-collar round 

 the neck. The colour of R. stramineus is pale brown, becoming 

 yellowish on the loins, while the head is dark umber. The 

 half-collar of coarse hairs round the throat of the male is a 

 reddish yellow. 



There is a specialised sub-family of frugivorous bats — the 

 Carponycteriiriie, which among other features is characterised 

 by a very long tongue, armed at the lower end with recurved 

 papillas like those on the tongue of a lion. These " brush- 

 tongued bats," as they are sometimes called, also have very narrow 

 molar teeth, scarcely rising above the level of the gums. The 

 number of the teeth in their West African representatives (at 

 least in Megaloglossus) is thirty-four — an unusually large number 

 for a fruit-eating bat (only equalled in Pteropus ^) ; but the teeth 

 are small and tending towards disappearance owing to the 

 increasing use of the tongue, which nourishes the bat by rasping 

 the thin skin of certain fruits and coating itself thickly with 



' Roussettus collaris is the Cynonycteris torquata of Bfittikofer ; tlie third species 

 — Roussettus buttikoferi —\^ the very doubtful Leipony x bucttikoferi oi ]entmV. 



' Pteropus likewise has thirty-four teetli. As a rule the teeth in the 

 Megetchiroptera are reduced to twenty-eight or thirty. 



690 



