104 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



second finger, too, though it wants no phalanx, is yet shorter 

 than the corresponding finger in the other bats, though 

 they want the little bone to which the nail is affixed. Finally? 

 it is necessary to remark that the roussettes are destitute o^ 

 the leaves or membranes which surround the nose in some 

 other families of this order. 



It would not be easy to find a group of animals more 

 completely circumscribed, and more perfectly isolated among 

 its congeners than the roussettes. But the advantage re- 

 sulting from this is counterbalanced by some inconveniences. 

 The difficulty of studying the species becomes more en- 

 hanced, as the characters which we are reduced to em- 

 ploy for that purpose, must of necessity be of an inferior 

 order, and somewhat arbitrary. 



These bats, however, possess one very distinctive mark, 

 of which the eminent naturalist above-mentioned has 

 availed himself for their classification. The larger rous- 

 settes have no tail, and the others have a small one. Di- 

 viding them on this principle, M. GeofFroy has made eleven 

 species of the roussettes, five larger, with tails, six smaller, 

 without. We proceed to notice whatever is interesting in 

 these, without troubling the reader in this place by their 

 enumeration. 



The Pteropus Edulis, or eatable roussette, or Kalou, is a 

 species discovered by M. M. Peron and Lesueur, in their 

 voyage to Australasia, at the island of Timor. It received its 

 name from these learned travellers, because its flesh, which 

 is white, delicate, and remarkably tender, is regarded by 

 these islanders as no small delicacy. The inhabitants of 

 Timor confound it with all the other species of Cheiroptera, 

 under the name of Malanou Bourou, (bird of night). The 

 Malays call it Kalou. It measures more than five feet from 

 the extremity of one wing to that of another, and is about 

 a foot in length, from the point of the muzzle to the end of 

 the crupper. The iris is very brown, and the nails of the 



