CARNARIA. <JO 



of fruit, of which they destroy considerable quantities ; they know, how- 

 ever, how to pursue birds and small quadrupeds. They are the largest 

 Bats known, and their flesh is eaten. They inhabit the East Indies. 



Their membrane is deeply notched between their legs; they have no 

 tail, or nearly none; the index finger, which is but half the length of the 

 medius, has a third phalanx, and a little nail which is wanting in the other 

 Bats; each of the other fingers, however, has but two phalanges. The 

 muzzle is simple, the nostrils are widely separated, the ears are of a 

 middling size, but without a tragus (a), and the tongue is bristled with 

 points that curve backwards ; the stomach is an elongated sac, unequally 

 inflated. They have never been found, except in Southern Asia or the 

 Indian Archipelago. 



I, The Roussettes without tails, with four incisors in each jaiv*. 



P. edulis, Geoff. (The Black Roussette, or Edible Bat). Blackish 

 brown, deepest beneath, nearly four feet between the extremities of 

 the wings. From the Straits of Sunda and the Moluccas, where 

 they are found in great numbers during the day suspended to the 

 trees. To preserve fruit from their attacks, it is necessary to cover 

 it with nets. Their cry is loud and resembles that of the goose. The 

 Bat is taken by holding to him a bag fastened to the end of a rod; 

 the flesh is esteemed a delicacy by the natives, but Europeans dislike 

 it on account of its musky scent f. 



Pter. vulgaris, Geoff.; Buff. X. 14. (The Common Roussette). 

 Brown, face and sides of the back fawn-coloured. From the Isle of 

 France and Bourbon, where it is found on the trees in the forests. 

 Its flesh has been compared to that of the hare and partridge. 



Pter. ruhicoUis, Geoff".; Buff". X. 17. (The Red-collared Rous- 

 sette, the Roussette of Bulfon). Greyish brown, the neck red. 

 From the same islands, where it lives in the hollows of trees and in 

 holes in rocks |;. 



II. With a small tail and four incisors in each jaw. 

 M. GeofFroy was the first who described the species of this sub- 

 division. One of them woolly and grey, Pter. cegypticus, is found 

 in the caves of Egypt, Another is reddish, and has a somewhat 

 longer tail, half involved by the membrane — Pter. amplexicaudtis, 

 Ann. du Mus. torn. XV. pi. 4. From the Indian Archipelago, &c. §. 



* Linnaeus confounded them under his species VespertiUo vampirus. 



t According to Zemminck, the Roussette of Edwarde Geoff., Edw. 108; it is 

 fawn-coloured, and deep brown in the back: it is only the young state of this species. 



J Add Pter. medius; — Pter. phaops; — Pter. poUocephalus ; — Pter. dasymallus; 

 Temm., Mamm., pi. IQ.—Pter. pal/idus; — Pter. Keraudrenius, Quoy and Gaym., 

 ^'oy. de Freycinet; — Pter. griseus, Geoff. Ann. Mus. pi. 3, XV. vi, cop. Temm., 

 pi. 11: — Pter. personatus ; — Pter. melrmocephalus, Temm. pi. 12. 



§ Add Pier, stramhmis; — Pter. marginatus, Geoff, loc. cit. pi. 5; — Pter. mhdmus, 

 id. or the Kiodote, Fr. Cuv., or the Pter. rostratus, Horsf. 



^^ (a) The Tragus is the small prominence of a triangular form, which, in the 

 external portion of the ear, projects over the anterior and outer part of the auditory 

 canal; it forms, in the human ear, the terminating portion of what is called the 

 antihelix. — Eng. Ed. 



VOL. I. F 



