TYPICAL GROUP. 283 



The greater number of the eight species of these bats occur in Tibet and the 

 Himalaya, some of them also extending into the highlands of India and Ceylon ; 

 there is also one from Java and some of the other Malayan Islands, and another 

 from Japan. The white-bellied tube-nosed bat (H. leucogaster) of the Himalaya is 

 remarkable for its brilliant coloration, the fur being golden-orange on the head, 

 the base of the hairs greyish, and on the back 

 pale rufous -brown with grey at the base. The 

 fur on the membrane is bright ferruginous, the 

 upper surface of the inter-femoral membrane and 

 toes being well covered. Beneath, the fur is white 

 throughout on the chin and throat, the rest of the 

 lower parts having bicoloured fur grey at the 

 base with white tips. 



Writing of its habits in the North -West 

 Himalaya, Captain Hutton says that it occurs 

 at an elevation of about 5500 feet, but does not HEAD OF TUBE-NOSED BAT. After Dobson. 

 appear to be common in the hills, the Dehra-Doon 



being probably its true locality there. An example which flew into a room at 

 Jeripani (below Masuri), at night, kept low down in its. flight, instead of soaring 

 towards the ceiling, passing under the tables and chairs, as if afraid to emerge 

 into the broad glare of the lamps. This is likewise the mode of flight when 

 searching for insects in the open fields, where it skims closely and somewhat 

 leisurely over the surface of the crops and grass. 



DAUBENTON'S BAT, NATTERER'S BAT, ETC. 

 Genus Vespertilio. 



Daubenton's bat (Vespertilio daubentoni), represented in the illustration 

 on p. 284, is a well-known although local British species, which we select as our 

 first example of the genus Vespertilio, second only in point of the number of its 

 species to Vesperugo, and the type of the family Vespertilionidce. The bats of this 

 genus have 38 teeth, of which there are f incisors and f cheek-teeth on each side of 

 the jaws. As Dr. Dobson observes, they are easily recognised by the circumstance that 

 the upper incisor teeth are so implanted in the jaw as to diverge from one another ; 

 and also by the large number of the cheek-teeth, which exceeds that obtaining in 

 any insectivorous bats yet noticed, and is only equalled in four other genera, of 

 which three are mentioned later on. Moreover, the second cheek-tooth in the 

 upper jaw, belonging to the premolar series, is invariably characterised by its 

 minute size. Then, again, the ear has a characteristic elongated oval form, and its 

 tragus is very narrow. 



The genus appears to be of unusually wide geographical distribution, and 

 is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of both hemispheres. 

 " Most of the species," writes Dr. Dobson, " appear to be dwellers in woods, some 

 either habitually or occasionally live in caves or under the roofs of houses. The 

 position of attachment of the wings to the hinder extremities, and the size of the 



