FRUIT-BATS. 259 



THE SHORT-NOSED FRUIT-BATS. 

 Genus Cynopterus. 



The short-nosed fruit-bats comprise several species almost exclusively confined 

 to the Oriental region (that is to say, ranging from India to the Malayan Islands), 

 and readily distinguished from the fox-bats by their short and rounded muzzles, 

 marked by a shallow vertical groove, and their small size. The teeth are, moreover, 

 somewhat less numerous than in the latter, being usually thirty-two, but occasion- 

 ally, owing to the absence of one pair of lower incisors, only thirty. They have 

 generally a short tail, with the same relations to the membrane between the legs as 

 in the tailed fox-bats. 



The common short -nosed fruit -bat (Cynopterus marginatus), ranging from 

 India to the Philippine Islands, is one of the best-known forms, and is remarkable 

 for its extreme voracity. It is very common throughout India, where it generally 

 inhabits trees, especially the palmyra palm, but is occasionally found in caverns 

 and crevices of rocks. This bat is very destructive to fruit, being especially fond 

 of plantains and mangoes. As an instance of its voracity, it may be mentioned 

 that an individual, of which the weight when killed some hours after the feast was 

 only one ounce, consumed two and a half ounces of plantains within a period of 

 three hours. It has been observed that the flight of this species is much lighter 

 than that of the fox-bats, although the general habits of the two groups are very 

 similar. 



THE TUBE-NOSED FRUIT-BATS. 

 Genus Harpyia. 



Two curious bats, differing from one another considerably in size, and found 

 from Celebes to New Guinea, North Australia, and New Ireland, are distinguished 

 from the short-nosed fruit-bats by their still shorter and more rounded muzzles, 

 but more especially by the production of the 

 nostrils into a pair of long diverging tubes, 

 reaching rather beyond the extremity of the 

 muzzle. Such a structure, except to a less 

 degree in one group of insect-eating bats, is 

 quite unparalleled elsewhere in the whole 

 class of Mammals, and gives to the creatures 

 such an extraordinary appearance that it is 

 difficult to believe at first sight that it is 



HEAD OF TUBE-NOSED FRUIT-BAT. 



bo tar as we are aware, no ( From Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc 1877.) 



suggestion has been yet made as to the 



probable reason for this tubular prolongation of the nostrils, although it is, doubt- 

 less, of some special advantage to these bats, of whose habits we have, indeed, 

 practically no information. The tube-nosed fruit-bats are further distinguished by 

 the small number of their teeth, of which the total is only twenty-four. 



