THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OP BATS. 231 



Murina in the slight contrast between anterior and posterior premo- 

 lars, but this peculiarity carried still further. Upper incisors very 

 large, the crown low and with distinct secondary cusps much like 

 those of Myotis, closely crowded against each other and against 

 canine, the four teeth, as in Murina, nearly in line with each other; 

 lower incisors low and heavy but normal in form, the edge bluntly 

 trifid. Canines excessively thick and low, though without peculiar 

 cusps. Upper premolars large, the approximation in form between 

 the two teeth carried even further than in Murina, so that the ante- 

 rior is merely not as large as the posterior, the latter of the normal 

 Vespertilionine form and with no distinct secondary cusp, except 

 occasionally at middle of cingulum (see Plate I, fig. 4) ; lower pre- 

 molars not peculiar, except that they are unusually large and robust. 

 First and second upper molars closely resembling the premolars, 

 owing to the fact that the protocone and paracone are greatly re- 

 duced from their normal size, and the mesostyle is absent. The outer 

 side of the tooth therefore presents a rather shallow, wide V inclos- 

 ing a noticeable concave depression, while the crown appears at first 

 sight to have only one cusp, the metacone, much like the cusp of the 

 premolars but lower and situated a little farther backward and 

 inward. On closer inspection the small protocone and paracone are 

 readily seen, both placed much nearer the metacone than in the nor- 

 mal tooth. Parastyle and metastyle unusually large though rather 

 indistinctly outlined. Last upper molar reduced to a mere scale 

 closely applied to posterior surface of m 2 immediately behind its 

 metacone, its greatest diameter (transverse to the tooth row) scarcely 

 one- fourth that of m 2 . Though so greatly reduced this tooth retains 

 a faint trace of an outer and inner cusp with the connecting com- 

 missure. Lower molars with all the cusps except protoconid much 

 reduced so that the teeth strongly approximate the form of the lower 

 premolars. The W pattern is practically absent owing to the reduced 

 size of the second segment and the indistinctness of the commissures. 



Species examined. — Harpiocephalus harpia (Temminck). 



Remarks. — This genus is immediately recognizable by the peculiar 

 tendency to approximation in the form of all the teeth. It appears 

 to be one of the most aberrant of the Vespertilionidse. The greatly 

 developed anterior upper premolar, if not a primitive character, 

 is certainly one that indicates a tendency directly opposed to the 

 normal course of evolution in the family. The form of molars, 

 though very peculiar, is merely an exaggeration of the conditions 

 found in Pachyotus. The tubular nostrils of this genus and of 

 Murina are not elsewhere met with except in Nyctymene, one of the 

 fruit bats. 



