THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OP BATS. 107 



Geographic distribution. — Tropical and temperate portions of the 

 Old World, east to the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, and north- 

 eastern Australia. 



Characters. — Humerus with trochiter about as large as trochin and 

 definitely articulating with scapula by an articular surface half as 

 large as glenoid fossa, both tubercles rising slightly above level of 

 head, epitrochlea large and with well-developed styloid process, capi- 

 tellum nearly in line with shaft; second manal digit consisting of 

 well-developed metacarpal alone; third finger with two phalanges; 

 shoulder girdle highly abnormal, the seventh cervical vertebra and 

 first dorsal so completely fused that their boundaries can not be 

 detected ; these are fused with first rib, which in turn is fused with 

 presternum and ventral half of second rib, the region between which 

 is completely filled with bone, the presternum appearing to be 

 enlarged to form a broadly crescentic plate; foot normal, the hallux 

 with two phalanges, the other toes with three ; fibula complete, thread- 

 like; pelvis abnormal, the ischium and pubis so reduced in size that 

 dorsal and ventral profiles of innominate bone are nearly parallel, 

 their width at the same time so increased that the thyroid foramen is 

 scarcely more than twice as large as the acetabulum ; lumbar vertebrae 

 showing no tendency to become fused, but centrum of fifth or sixth, 

 often of both, with distinct bifid or double hypophysis; skull with- 

 out postorbital processes and with premaxillaries represented by ligu- 

 late palatal branches only, the two bones partly cartilaginous, and 

 fused neither with each other nor with maxillaries; palate so deeply 

 emarginate both anteriorly and posteriorly that its median length 

 is less than least distance between tooth rows; teeth normal; ears 

 large, without tragus; muzzle with conspicuous leaflike cutaneous 

 outgrowths consisting of a horizontal anterior horseshoe, a perpen- 

 dicular median sella, and a posterior erect lancet. 



Remarks. — The large ears without tragus, the conspicuous nose- 

 leaves, and the normal feet are the characters by which the members 

 of this family are most easily recognized. The degree of fusion of 

 the elements of the shoulder girdle, and the very remarkable hy- 

 pophyses of the fifth and sixth numbar vertebras further distinguish 

 the group. 



History. — Associated with the Vespertilionidas by the earlier writ- 

 ers, the family Bhinolophidse appears to have been first recog- 

 nized as distinct by Gervais in 1854. With it were combined the Hip- 

 posideridse. Its separation from the latter took place in 1875 when 

 Dobson recognized two subfamilies of Rhinolophidse, the Rhinolo- 

 phinse and Phyllorhininse. The only departure from this arrange- 

 ment was made by Winge, who placed Megaderma and Nycteris in 

 the family Rhinolophidse, reduced the family as generally understood 

 to the rank of a subfamily, and the two subfamilies to sections, 



