XVI.] 



CHIROPTERA. 



291 



The pollex is short, divaricated from the other digits, not 

 enveloped, as they are, in a cutaneous expansion, and armed 

 with a curved claw. The other digits are extremely long and 

 slender. 



In the Frugivorous Rats (Fteropida) the second digit has a 

 short ungual phalanx and claw, but in each of the other 



*i 



Fit;. 96. B^nes of the manus of Beaver (Castor canadensis), j. 



digits the middle phalanx is elongated, and gradually tapers 

 to the termination, the ungual phalanx being absent. 



In the Insectivorous Bats, the pollex alone has a claw, 

 and the elongation of the other digits is chiefly due to the 

 metacarpals, the phalanges being small and very slender, 

 and usually only two in number, except in the third digit, 

 which occasionally (as in Phyllostomida J ) has three. 



' G. E. Dobson, " Catalogue of Chiroptera," Brit. Mus.'i878. 

 U 2 



