FALSE VAMPIRES. 



267 



All the members of this family, which is known as the Nycteridti', 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 develojmient 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 

 teeth being 28 or 26, of which the incisors number 2, the canines i, and the cheek- 

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

 Indian false vampire {M. lyra), which is found thi-oughout India, from Kashmir to 

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

 Decisive evidence of its blood-sucking propen.sities was obtained by Blyth, who on 

 one occasion saw one of these bats Hy 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 seizeil 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 Bunna. Blj^tli was also 

 infoi-med 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 wei"e 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- 

 spondence with their different habits, tlie jaws and 



lips of this .species, as well as of the other false vampires, differ considcrablj' from 

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

 pai-take 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 8 to 3i 

 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 bj' 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 — Kyctcri.^ — of this family. They are readily distinguished from the 

 false vampires by the pi-actical absence of a distinct nose-leaf, which is ivpresented 

 onty 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 



HE.\D OF IXDUN' FALSE VAMPIEE BAT. 



