ON THE GLOSSOPHAGIN &. 209 
extremities and the details in the phalanges and terminal cartilages to warrant the intro- 
duction at this place of a few remarks on the subject of flight. 
Leptonycteris. The greatest restriction in the movements of the digits is found in 
Leptonycteris. The sharp flexure of the second row of the phalanges on the first impede 
rapidity of flight, while the axially disposed, terete terminal cartilages show absence of 
strain. The second and third metacarpals always maintain an acute angle to the forearm. 
Glossophaga and Chernycteris. These genera resemble Leptonycteris, differing 
therefrom in degree only in the greater degree of interphalangeal flexure and in the 
angulation of the second and third digits to the forearm. 
Anura shows scarcely any tendency to flexure or angulation of the parts above 
named while the terminal cartilages of the third and fourth digits are markedly deyiated 
from the axial positions and thus appear to correlate with increase of wing strain. 
Lonchoglossa is intermediate between Anwra and the preceding group. 
Phyllonycteris shows an isolated position from the foregoing group as a whole, on 
account of the terminal cartilage of the fifth digit being entirely embraced by the wing 
membrane. It is a curious circumstance that the remote Leptonycteris exhibits a similar 
peculiarity. 
It cannot escape notice in studying the group that the extraction of soft pulp from 
a fruit is not unlike the lapping of blood. Acquirements apparently so diverse as 
fruit-eating and blood-taking are not so improbable as they might appear to be at 
first sight. Geoffroy, who established Glossophaga, yet who had no knowledge of the 
habits of the species, concluded from the structure of the tongue that the animal was a 
blood-sucker.* In adapting the head so as to create a blood-lapping from a pulp- 
extracting form the greatly elongated jaws are shortened, the face flattened, and the 
teeth become knife-like. In this manner we may trace the transitions which have taken 
place in the Vampyri in creating on one hand the Glossophagine and on the other hand 
the Desmodine. 
In Glossophaga the Flexor carpi radialis passes along the upper border of the radius 
as far as the distal third, at which point it crosses the curved radius to reach the carpus. 
In Chernycteris and Lonchoglossa the tendon of this muscle lies to the lower border of 
the nearly straight radius. 
The Flexor sublima digitorum has the weakest development in Chernycteris, 
which form it supplies the first and fourth digits only. In Phyllonycteris it omits only 
the second, while in Lonchoglossa and Glossophaga it supplies all the digits. 
* The stomach in the Glossophaga villosa Rengger (Naturgesch. der Sdugcthiere von Paraguay, Basel, 1830, 80) was 
found to contain blood with remains of insects. Jt is not known what forms would now be included under this title. 
See remarks on Ania. 
Ay B &=VOm, SUK, YD. 
