THE FALSE VAMPIRE BATS AND THEIR ALLIES 



267 



ample flying close to a tree. It circled twice round the tree while I was watching 

 it, keeping about three feet above the ground. Apparently finding that none of the 

 insects it wanted were about, it suspended itself to a small horizontal branch of the 

 tree, just three 'and a half feet above the ground, and so remained for some time. 

 It was probably waiting for a more propitious hour. Whether this was really the 

 explanation of the pause in its flight or not, it seems certain that this bat does not 

 ordinarily remain very long on the wing. I have often observed that in the early 

 part of the night it alternated its pursuit of insects with short periods of repose in 

 an outhouse. On one occasion, I observed a bat of this species return three times 

 during the evening (from about 8 to 10 P. M.) to a room I happened to be occupy- 

 ing ; and, curiously enough, it always attached itself to precisely the same part of 

 the ceiling. That part of the room, however, was the point furthest away from me, 

 and my presence may have influenced the bat in its selection of the spot. ' ' 



In addition to the true leaf-nosed bats, of which there are fully twenty species, 

 there are several more or less closely allied kinds which are referred by zoologists 

 to distinct genera. The only one of these we shall notice here is the flower-nosed 

 bat {Anthops ornatus), discovered a few years ago in the Solomon islands, and 

 remarkable for the extraordinary develop- ,. ; . , , 



meiit of its nose-leaf. This appendage as- 

 sumes the form of a large rosette, covering 

 the whole front of the face, reaching from 

 eye to eye, and extending downward nearly 

 to the upper lip. Above the eyes the upper 

 border of this rosette terminates in three 

 stalked balls, while the remainder consists of 

 overlapping furbelow-like expansions of skin; 

 the obliquely-placed nostrils appearing some- 

 what below its centre. It is difficult to 

 believe that such an extraordinary structure 

 is solely connected with the sense of touch, 

 and we should rather assume that in this 

 case the great development of the rosette is to 

 a considerable extent an ornamental feature. 

 Mr. O. Thomas remarks that the discovery 

 of such a form in the Solomon group is a most interesting and unexpected fact, 

 since oceanic islands are generally characterized by the large proportion and great 

 specialty of their frugivorous as compared with their insectivorous bats, a rule 

 otherwise well exemplified in this archipelago. 



FACE OF THE FLOWER-NOSED BAT. 



(Four times natural size.) 

 (After Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1888.) 



THE FALSE VAMPIRE BATS AND THEIR ALLIES 

 Family 



Certain bats agreeing with the preceding group in the possession of a nose-leaf, 

 and found in the tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, India, and the Malayan 



