60 



Div. 1. YEPtTEBPvATE ANIMALS— MAMMALIA. 



Class 1. 



Two or three species are known, of moderate but not lar^'e size.* One was taken in the act of suckino- blood 

 from the neck of a Horse, by Jlr. Darwin. It is probable lh:it their external similitude to the Phyilostorats has 

 occasioned the lattjr to be accused of a sangiiivorous propensity, for which their structure seems to be at 

 most but pai-tially adapted, wh.ile that of the present genus is obviously expressly designed for this mode of life. 

 Compare the figures given of the dentition of the two genera.] 



In the second grand tribe of Bats, the index has only one bony phalanx, while all the other fingers 

 have two. This tribe also requires to be divided into several subgenera. 



The Megaderms {Megaderma, Geof.) — 

 Have the nasal membrane more complicated than in the Pbyllostomes ; the tragus large and most 

 commonly bifurcated ; the conch of the cars very ample, and joined together on the top of the head ; 

 the tongue and the lips smooth ; interfemoral membrane 

 entire, and there is no tail. They have four incisors below, 

 but none above, and their intermaxillaries remain carti- 

 laginous. [Their wings .are remarkably ample, the whole 

 cutaueous system of these animals being excessively de- 

 veloped. 



Four species are known ; two from Africa, the others from 

 the Indian archipelago. One of the former (M. froits, fig. 14) 

 has the body covered with long hair, of most delicately fine 

 texture; it constitutes the division Lai-ia of Gray.] They are 

 distinguished by the figure of the leaf, like the Phyllostomee. 



TheRhinoli'Hines {Rhinolophus, Geof. and Cuv. [^Noctilio 

 Bechst.]), vulgarly termed Horseshoe Bafs. 



These have the nose furnished with very complicated 

 membranes and crests resting on the forehead, and al- 

 together presenting [more or less] the figure of a horse- 

 shoe ; their tail is long, and placed in the interfemoral 

 membrane. They have four incisors below, and two small 

 ones above, fixed in a cartilaginous intermaxillary. t- ''/j4 



Two species are very common in France [and found sparingly 

 and loc.illy in Englandf], — Vesp. ferrum-equinum, Lin., or Hh. 

 hifer, Geof., and Vesp. Mpposidcros, Bechstein. They both 

 inhabit quarries [cathedrals, &c.], where they hang solitarily [?] suspended by the feet, and enveloping them- 

 selves with their wings, so that no part of their body is visible. [They differ chicily in size, but in this con- 

 siderably ; the larger measuring 13 inclies .icross, the other 8i inches. 



More than twenty species are known, all from 

 the eastern hemisphere. Tliey fall under two 

 divisions, of which the extremes are shovvn in 

 the acroMipanying representation (fig. 15) ; but 

 the majority are of intermediate character, like 

 the two which inh.ibit Lurope. Those with 

 nicnibranous crests have the tragus distinct, 

 and sometimes considerably developed; the 

 others have no separated tragus, and compose 

 the divisions llippo.sidoro^. Gray, (identical with 

 P/iillorhiiin, Uonap.) and Asdiui, Gray : Aiileiis 

 of the same systematist referring to a member of 

 the former sub-group, which is destitute of tail, 

 «nd almost of interfemoral membrane ; charac- 

 trrR, however, to which other species approxi- 

 mate. They inhabit the darkest caverns, in vast multitudes, the sexes and young in separate assemblages. 

 Tenetrating to more deeply obscure recesses than any of the others, it is probable that their facial appendages are 

 endowed w ith exquisite sensibility, for the still further extension of that delicacy of the sense of touch, by which 

 others of this family are enjibled to guide themselves when deprived of vision : the dryness of these membranes 

 intimates that they are not olfactory. Certain inguinal glands, more or less distinctly developed in these 

 animals, have been erroneously described as mammary teats. 



(''■ 



¥'.g. 14.— Mcgatlcrma froca. 



; 



-.;gJ?*S> 



¥\g. 15. — Kbinolophus nobills. 



R. insi^Miis 



* There U rcaton to saspcct that the f cnut Detmoditi is much more 

 cxtcnktTcljr represented.— £d 



t A British locnlity, where both occur rVthcr innncroasly, is the 

 wcU-knowii cave near Torquay, in JicvoiisUirc, cr.Ilcd Kc$if$ Ifote, 



