NYCTERIDAE 659 
inches), is not only the largest species of the genus but also of the 
suborder. Jf. lyra, common in India (forearm 2-7 inches), has been 
caught in the act of sucking the blood, while flying, from a small 
species of Vesperugo, which it afterwards devoured, so that it is 
probable that the Bats of this genus do not confine themselves to 
_Fia. 307.—Megaderma gigas. x 3. (From Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880.) 
insect prey alone, but also feed, when they can, upon the smaller 
species of Bats and other small mammals. 
The Oriental J/. spasma and M. lyra differ from the Ethiopian 
M. cor and M. frons in having two upper premolars instead of one, 
and also in the shape of the frontals and nasals. 
Nycteris.1—Dentition : 1 2, ¢4,p 4, m3; total 32. This genus, 
of which there are seven species, differs so much from Megaderma 
that it may be considered the type of a separate subfamily. As in 
that genus, the frontal bones are deeply hollowed out and expanded 
laterally, the muzzle presents a similar cylindrical form, and the 
lower jaw also projects, but the single elevated nose-leaf is absent, 
and instead of it the face is marked by a deep, longitudinal, sharp- 
edged groove extending from the nostrils (which are on the upper 
1 Geoffroy, Vowv. Dict. d Hist, Nat. vol. xv. p. 501 (1803). 
