4G6 



PHYLLOSTOMIU^. 



blance of tlie species of Megaderma to Macrotus that Wagner united 

 this genus with Mejaderma, Rhinopoma, and Nycteris in his sub- 

 family Megadermata. 



This resemblance in structure between species of such widely 

 separated genera indicates some similarity in habits ; and the obser- 

 vations of the late Mr. Osburn on M. tvaterhousii appear to show 

 some agreement at least between its habits and those of Megaderma 

 lyra, as described by Mr. Blyth (vide supra, p. 155). Mr. Osburn 

 having obtained several females of M. tvaterhousii with and without 

 yoiing, placed a young Bat which had lost its mother in the same 

 cage with a female that was not giving milk. When the young 

 animal tried to cling to her, as to its mother, she seized it in a 

 savage manner, biting it and holding the head between her teeth. 

 Afterwards on examining the stomach of this female, it was found 

 fuU of coagulated blood, part of which was entering intestine. 

 This agrees closely with Mr. Blyth's account of the habits of an 

 individual of Megaderma lyra, which he caught in the act of 

 sucking the blood from a small Bat, which it afterwards devoured. 

 As Megaderma lyra has been shown to feed also upon frogs and 

 grasshoppers, and probably on other insects, so Macrotus tvaterhousii 

 was found to vary its diet still more, its food consisting not only of 

 insects, and probably of small Bats, but also of fruits. Mr. Osburn, 

 writing from St. Ann's, Jamaica, remarks : — " My host, in an open 

 verandah, showed me a number of spirts on the wall, on examining 

 which I could detect seeds of the fustic berry (Morus tinctoria) 

 sticking to the wall in the dried pulp by which they were sur- 

 rounded. These, he said, were, to his great annoyance, produced by 

 ihe Long-eared Bat (Macrotus). They came in at night, hitched 

 them.selves up, when a chewing might be distinctly heard, and then 

 these splashes on the wall. One let the wings and legs of a large 

 grasshopper drop. The berries Dr. Eose particularly mentioned 

 were the fustic, the bread-nut (Brosimum alicastrum), and the rose- 

 apple (Eugenia jamhos)." 



In the stomach of one individual " a yellowish mass, with frag- 

 ments of harder parts of insects interspersed," was found, among 

 Avhich two short legs with powerful double claws attached belonging 

 to some species of Orthoptera. 



This species, as in all species in which the antebrachial mem- 

 brane is weU developed, margining the forearm, is quite unfitted for 

 walking on a flat surface. Mr. Gosse remarks that when placed on 

 a horizontal surface they do not run, but leap into the air at once, 

 readily taking to flight ; and Mr. Osburn found that three or four 

 hours on a flat surface had made the wrists of the specimens ob- 

 served by him inflamed and sore. He also notices that Macrotus is 

 especially a cave-haunting genus : " when inhabiting houses these 

 Bats alwaj^s live in the cellars below ground, they are never found 

 in the roofs." 



The specimens of this species observed by Mr. Oosse were found 

 infested with Strebla vespertilionis, which flew away from among 

 their fur even while yet alive. 



