118 



Vespertilio Natalensis, Smith, South African Quart. Journ. new 

 ser. v. 1, 1832. 



Miniopteris dasythrix, Smith, 111. Zool. S. Africa, no. 27. pi. 52, 

 1848 ; Schinz, Synop. Marara. i. p. 166, 1844. 



The crown of the head is very much elevated, and the face so 

 much depressed as to give the appearance of a deep hollow across 

 its middle. The muzzle is very short and round, but it is not itself 

 much depressed, as in the flat-headed species such as the Noctule. 

 From the great concavity of the middle part of the face, the muzzle 

 appears to have an upward direction. The nostrils are small, near 

 together, and in the specimens preserved in spirit are directed nearly 

 straight forward ; but in dried specimens they have a sublateral di- 

 rection. 



The ears are very short, somewhat quadrangular in form, with 

 the angles rounded, and have their outer margin brought forward 

 along the face in the form of a very narrow strip of membrane to 

 near the corners of the mouth. The inner margin rises from the 

 side of the head in a perpendicular direction for a very short distance, 

 and then making an angle, which if not rounded off would be a right 

 angle, proceeds outwards in nearly a straight line, and forms another 

 similar rounded angle with the outer margin. About the middle of 

 the outer margin is a slight hollow. 



The tragus reaches fully halfway up the ear, and in actual mea- 

 surement nearly equals it in length, both being viewed as simple 

 projections and measured along their central lines. Its form is 

 somewhat similar to that of the tragus of the common Pipistrelle ; 

 but it is relatively longer and narrower, of absolutely uniform breadth, 

 and with the tip more regularly rounded. It curves inwards for 

 the whole of its length, but most strikingly so about one-fourth of 

 the distance from the end. 



The wings are long in relation to the size of the animal, and the 

 longest finger is fully twice the length of the fore-arm. The middle 

 phalanges of the two longest fingers in the wing are very short, but 

 the relative lengths of the same parts in the other fingers are not 

 remarkable. In the relative proportions of these bones to each other, 

 they closely resemble the same parts in Furipterus, but in no other 

 group that I have had the opportunity of examining. Thumb of 

 medium length and size, with the terminal phalange a little longer 

 than the basal one ; its claw rather strongly hooked. 



The wing-membranes are attached as far as to the extremity of 

 the tibiae. 



The hinder limbs are of medium proportion ; but the feet are rather 

 large, and have the toes of about one-half of their entire length. The 

 claws, although of moderate size, are strongly hooked. 



The tail is long, and is composed of nine vertebrae, and is fully 

 equal in length to the head and body. It is wholly enclosed by the 

 interfemoral membrane, which has about thirteen transverse clotted 

 lines, which are very near together on its basal portion. All the 

 membranes are somewhat diaphanous, but present no great pecu- 

 liarities of reticulated or other markings. 



