FALSE VAMPIRES. 267 



All the members of this family, which is known as the Nycteridce, are dis- 

 tinguished from the horseshoe-bats and their allies by the presence of a large tragus 

 in the long ears, and also by the smaller development or practical absence of the 

 nose-leaf. The false vampires (Megaderma) are easily recognised by their enormous 

 ears being united together for a longer or shorter distance by their inner margins, 

 and also by the divided tragus and tall nose-leaf. Their tail is so small as to be 

 practically invisible ; and they have no upper incisor teeth ; the total number of their 

 tt-rtli being 28 or 26, of which the incisors number , the canines |, and the cheek- 

 teeth either |j- or 4 on each side. One of the best known species of the group is the 

 Indian false vampire (M. lyra), which is found throughout India, from Kashmir to 

 Ceylon, and, although at present unrecorded from Burma, reappears in China. 

 Decisive evidence of its blood-sucking propensities was obtained by Blyth, who on 

 one occasion saw one of these bats fly into his house with a smaller bat in its mouth, 

 which it dropped when pursued. The captured bat was weak from loss of blood, 

 and when put next morning into a cage with its captor was at once attacked by 

 the latter, being seized behind the ear and speedily 

 devoured. Canaries in Rangoon have also been 

 killed by bats, probably belonging to this species 

 an inference which, if correct, proves the occur- 

 rence of this bat in Burma. Blyth was also 

 informed by a correspondent that his house was 

 frequented by numbers of these bats, and that in 

 the mornings the floor of the verandah was strewn 

 with the debris of slaughtered frogs, large grass- 

 hoppers, and crickets; while on one occasion the 

 remains of a small fish were discovered. Frogs 

 appeared, however, to be the favourite food of these 

 bats, which could sometimes be heard crunching 

 the bones and skulls of their victims. In corre- HEAD OF INDIAN FALSE VAMPIRE BAT. 

 spondence with their different habits, the jaws and 



lips of this species, as well as of the other false vampires, differ considerably from 

 those of ordinary insect-eating bats ; and we may hence assume that all the species 

 partake more or less extensively of an abnormal diet. The large Indian false vampire, 

 which, like the other species, has no tail visible externally, measures from 3 to 3J 

 inches in length, while its extended wings have a span of from 14 to 19 inches. 



A second species, the Malay false vampire, extends from the Malayan region 

 and Tenasserim to China, while two others are found in Africa. One of the latter 

 (M. frons) is characterised by the great height of the nose-leaf, and also by the 

 length of the tragus of the ear. It is an inhabitant of the west coast. These 

 African species have one more upper premolar tooth than the oriental forms. 



There does not appear to be any popular name for the bats forming the 

 second genus Nycteris of this family. They are readily distinguished from the 

 false vampires by the practical absence of a distinct nose-leaf, which is represented 

 only by a slit running down the middle of the face from the nostrils to the line of 

 the ears, on the sides of which are small expansions of skin. Then, again, the ears, 

 although furnished with an undivided tragus, are merely joined by a very narrow 



