LEAF-NOSED BATS. 263 



THE HORSESHOE AND LEAF-NOSED BATS. 

 Family RHINOLOPHID^. 



The bat represented in the accompanying illustration is one of the two British 

 representatives of a well-marked and rather numerous family distributed over the 

 greater part of the Old World. This family is technically known as the Rhino- 

 !<>l>/tidce, and includes the horseshoe-bats (Rhinolophus) and the leaf -nosed bats 

 (Hipposiderus\ together with some less important genera. All of them are 





THE GREATER HORSESHOE-BAT (f nat. size). 



characterised by having a well-developed nose-leaf completely surrounding the 

 nostrils, which are situated in a depression of the snout. And they are also distin- 

 guished by their large ears, which have no trace of an inner ear, or tragus, and are 

 in most cases completely separate from one another at their origin at the head. 



The horseshoe-bats (Rhinolophus), of which our figure is an example, always 

 have 32 teeth, of which the incisors number J, and the cheek-teeth f on 

 either side ; and they are further distinguished by the shape of the nose- 

 leaf, which consists of two portions, the one immediately over the nose being 

 horseshoe-shaped, and the posterior one pointed. Moreover, the ears have a large 

 process of membrane in front, termed the antitragus. 



