296 BATS. 



become a serious inconvenience to travellers. Thus when at Caripi, a station 

 situated about twenty miles from Para, Bates narrates how for the first few nights 

 of his stay he slept in a room with the roof open to the tiles and rafters, which had 

 not been used for many months previously ; and on the second night of his visit 

 was awakened about midnight by the sudden rushing of swarms of bats flying 

 around him. So numerous were they, that the air was alive with them : the lamp 

 had been extinguished by the rush of their wings, but when relighted revealed the 

 whole room blackened by their multitudes. The traveller proceeded to clear 

 them out by laying about vigorously with a stick, and for a time succeeded in 

 making the unwelcome intruders retire to the tiles and rafters. No sooner, 

 however, was quiet restored than the bats reappeared in full force, and once more 

 extinguished his light. On the third night several of the bats got into his 

 hammock, and crawled over him ; these were seized and dashed against the wall. 

 In the morning he was unpleasantly reminded of the nocturnal visitation by 

 finding that he had a wound on the hip, evidently caused by the bite of a bat. 

 Being thereby roused to desperation, he set to work in real earnest to mitigate 

 the nuisance. A large number were shot as they clung to the rafters, while the 

 negroes ascended the roof from outside by means of ladders, and succeeded in 

 routing out hundreds of them from beneath the eaves, among which were several 

 broods of young ones. Although there were altogether four species of bats present 

 on this occasion, one of which belonged to the genus Pkyllostoma, another to 

 Glossophaga, and two to the present genus, by far the greater majority pertained 

 to the large-eared mastiff-bat (M. perotis), characterised by the great size of its 

 ears, and having a span of wing of 2 feet. It was these bats which crawled over 

 Mr. Bates while in his hammock ; but it was the Phyllostoma (of which more 

 anon) that appears to have inflicted the wound. 



THE NAKED BAT. 

 Genus Chiromeles. 



One of the ugliest and strangest of all the Chiroptera is the naked or collared bat 

 (Chiromeles torquatus), of the Malayan region, which is a large species, measuring 

 5J inches in length, exclusive of the tail. The total number of its teeth is 26, of 

 which \ are incisors, and f are cheek-teeth on each side. With the exception of a 

 collar of thinly- spread hairs, nearly surrounding the neck, the thick and puckered 

 skin is almost completely naked. The great toe is longer than all the others, to 

 which it can be opposed ; the ears are not joined together, the lips are smooth, and 

 the tail is very long and thick, with more than half its length freely projecting 

 beyond the hinder border of the membrane between the legs. 



The most curious feature about this repulsive-looking animal (in which, by the 

 the way, the muzzle is long and pig-like) is, however, the presence of a deep pouch 

 on the under side of the body below the arm-pits. These pouches, which occur in 

 both sexes, are for the purpose of containing the young during the period of 

 suckling ; and are absolutely necessary, since in their absence the young would be 

 quite unable to cling to the naked body of the parent. Since these pouches are 



