CuAr. I.] 



NYCTERIBIA. 



161 



I.cpus nigricollis, F. Cuv. 

 llystrix Icucurus, Sykes. 



Edentata. 



Manis pentadactyla, Lmi. 



Facbydermata. 



Elcphas Indicus, Linn. 

 Sus Indicus, Grai/. 

 Zeylonicus, Blyth. 



Ruminantia. 



IMoschus meminna, Erxl. 

 Stylocerus muntjac, Hor&f. 

 Axis maculata, H. Smith. 

 Rusa Aristotelis, Cuv. 



Cetacea. 



Ilalicorc dugung, F, Cuv, 



NOTE (A.) 

 Parasite of the Bat. 



One of the most curious peculiarities connected with the bats 

 is their singular parasite, the Nycteribia.^ On cursory obser- 

 vation, this creature appears to have neither head, antennae, eyes, 

 nor mouth ; and the earlier observers of its structure assured 

 themselves that the place of the latter was supplied by a cylin- 

 drical sucker, which, being placed between the shoulders, the 

 creature had no option but to turn on its back to feed. This ap- 

 parent inconvenience was thought to have been compensated for 

 by another anomaly : its three pairs of legs, armed with claws, 

 being so arranged that they seemed to be equally distributed 

 over its upper and under sides, the creature being thus enabled 

 to use them like hands, and to grasp the strong hairs above it 

 while extracting its nourishment. It moves by rolling itself 

 rapidly along, rotating like a wheel on the extremities of its 

 spokes, or like the clown in a pantomime hurling himself forward 

 on hands and feet alternately. Its celerity is so great that Colonel 

 Montague, who was one of the first to describe it minutely-, 

 says its speed exceeds that of any known insect, and as its 

 joints are so flexible as to yield in every direction (like what 

 mechanics call a "ball and socket"), its motions are exceed- 

 ingly grotesque as it tumbles through the fur of the bat. 



To enable it to attain its marvellous velocity, each foot ia 



' This extraordinary creatiu'e had 

 foniierly been discovered only on a 

 few European bats. Joinvillc figured 

 one which he found on the large 

 roussette (the flying-fox), and says he 

 had seen another on a bat of the same 

 family. Dr. Templeton observed 



VOL. I. 



them in Ceylon in great abundance 

 on the fur of the Scofophilus Coro- 

 mamleJicus, and they will, no doubt, 

 be found on many others. 



2 Celeripes vespertilionis, Mont, 

 Lin. Trans, xi. p. 11, 



M 



