32 CATALOGUE. 



procuring a convenient cage, I first put in the Megaderma, and after 

 observing it some time, I placed the other bat with it. No sooner was 

 the latter perceived, than the other fastened on it with the ferocity of 

 a tiger, again seizing it behind the ear, and made several efforts to fly 

 off with it, but finding it must needs stay within the precincts of the 

 cage, it soon hung by the hind-legs to one side of its prison, and after 

 sucking its victim till no more blood was left, commenced devouring it, 

 and soon left nothing but the head and some portions of the limbs. 

 The voidings observed very shortly afterwards in its cage resembled 

 clotted blood, which will explain the statement of Stedman and others, 

 concerning masses of congealed blood being always observed near a 

 patient who has been attacked by a South American vampyre. 



" Such then is the mode of subsistence of the Megaderma. The san- 

 guivorous propensities of certain Bats inhabiting South America, have 

 long been notorious, but the fact has not heretofore been observed in 

 the Old World ; and the circumstance of one kind of Bat preying upon 

 another is altogether new, though I think it not improbable that the 

 same will be found to obtain (to a greater or less extent) among the 

 larger species, if not throughout the whole extensive allied genus of Rhi- 

 nolophus (or Horse-shoe Bats), which, like Megaderma, are peculiar to 

 the eastern world." (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XI. pp. 255-6.) 



38. MEGADERMA SPASM A, Linn. Sp. 



Vespertilio spasma, Linn., Syst. Nat. XII. , /. p. 47 ; ed. 



Gmel. I. p. 46. 

 Megaderma spasma, Geoff., Ann. du Mus. XV. p. 195. 



Muller, over de Zoogd. v. d. Ind. Archip. p. 24. 



HAB. The Indian Archipelago. 



A. Horsfield's Collection from Java. 



B. Dried. 



In M. lyra, the lobes of the ears are united to a considerable extent ; 

 in M. spasma, the lobes are nearly distinct. 



39. MEGADERMA 



A species, probably new, from Continental India, contributed by 

 E. Blyth, Esq., on behalf of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The lobes of 

 the ears are partially united as in M. lyra. Fur above and below 

 bluish-gray, uniform on both surfaces, very long and soft. The mem- 

 brane along the sides of the abdomen without transverse lines. The 

 lobes of the ears externally near the base, marked with regularly parallel 

 ridges. 



