258 BATS. 



Many of these fox-bats, instead of living in trees, inhabit caves or deserted 

 buildings ; one species being found in numbers in the chambers of the great pyramid 

 in Egypt, as well as in old buildings in Palestine ; while a second was observed by 

 Mr. Blanford inhabiting caves excavated in rock-salt in Kishm Island, in the 

 Persian Gulf. Dr. Dobson is of opinion that different individuals of a single species 

 of these bats may inhabit either caves or trees ; and he further believes that those 

 dwelling in caves may be distinguished from those habitually frequenting trees by 

 their shorter fur. Like most other members of the family, these bats will travel 

 long distances in their daily journeys for food ; and it was at one time supposed 

 that in Nipal they flew between thirty and forty miles out and home. This 

 enormous distance has, however, been shown to be incorrect; the length of the 

 daily journey really being about sixteen miles each way. 



THE EPAULETTED FRUIT-BATS. 

 Genus Epomophorus. 



A striking contrast to the neat and sharp-muzzled heads of the fox-bats is 

 presented by a small group of African species known as the epauletted fruit-bats, 

 so named from the tufts of hair surmounting the shoulders of the males. These 

 bats have fewer teeth than the fox-bats, the total number being only twenty-six 

 or twenty-eight. They are readily distinguished by their remarkably large and 

 long heads, with a bluntly conical or truncated muzzle, the very large, flabby, and 

 expansible lips bordering the capacious mouth, and also by the presence of a tuft 

 of white hair on the margins of the ears. Some of these bats are tailless, while 

 others have a short tail unconnected with the membrane between the legs. In 

 all the species but one, the males, which are larger than the females, are fur- 

 nished with peculiar pouches of skin on the sides of the neck, from the interior 

 of which project tufts of long yellowish hair, surmounting the shoulders, so as to 

 resemble epaulettes, and thus giving origin to the popular and scientific names of 

 the group. 



These bats are confined to that portion of Africa lying to the south of the 

 Sahara Desert, which constitutes the greater portion of the Ethiopian region of 

 zoologists, and are unknown in Madagascar. They are most abundant in the 

 forest regions of the western side of the continent, especially the Gabun district. 

 It is here that we meet with that most remarkable species discovered by Du 

 Chaillu, known as the hammer-headed bat (Epomophorus monstrosus), which differs 

 from the rest in the absence of shoulder-tufts in the males. The head in that sex 

 has an enormous muzzle, furnished with a kind of shield-like expansion in front, 

 communicating a most repulsive and hideous expression to the whole face, which 

 reminds one of a very ugly caricature of the head of a mule. Sir John Kirk tells 

 us that the epauletted fruit-bats subsist largely on figs, and Dr. Dobson remarks 

 that their voluminous and capacious lips are admirably adapted to retain and 

 swallow without loss the juicy contents of these and other soft fruits during the 

 process of mastication. 



