ORDER CARNASSIER. 145 



side, and in this position, the thumb becomes the external 

 finger, and the calcaneum is prolonged into a long apophysis 

 to sustain the interfemoral membrane in flight. 



The head of the Noctule is large, the muzzle obtuse and 

 without hair, the cheeks prominent and rounded. The ear 

 is large and naked, and the eye is placed immediately be- 

 neath it : the mouth is remarkably open, which gives a 

 very peculiar expression to the physiognomy of the animal. 

 Its organs of sense also, considered in detail, present cha- 

 racters exclusively peculiar to the species. 



The eye very small and round, has thick eyelids, which sur- 

 round it like swellings, and the upper one is surmounted in 

 the front with a wart ; the iris and the pupil being both 

 black, the form of the latter is not distinguishable. The 

 nostrils very much separated from each other, are open on 

 the sides of a flat and large muzzle, of a glandulous ap- 

 pearance, but not very distinct from the naked parts which 

 surround it. The orifice of these nostrils is circular, and is 

 terminated behind by a tolerable large sinus, which has an 

 upward direction. 



The upper lip is entire, and in the middle part of the 

 lower, we remark a semicircular portion, which is furnished 

 with an uniform and black skin, which appears to be orga- 

 nized differently from the neighbouring parts. The mouth 

 has no cheek pouches, and the tongue, which is covered 

 with soft and fine papillae, is rounded at its extremity, and 

 divided transversely in the middle by a sort of swelling that 

 looks like a second tongue, and the anterior border of 

 which is furnished with a rank of papillae, or soft and co- 

 nical fringes ; this swelling is itself covered with soft pa- 

 pillae, and terminated by two large glands rounded, and 

 partly flattish. The ear is large, rounded at its extremity, 

 of a breadth equal to its length, and is particularly remark- 

 able by an elongation of the external edge of the helix, 

 which is continued underneath as far as the commissure of 



Yah, II; h 



