io8 BRITISH MAMMALS 



any one made a humming noise like a bluebottle, the bat 

 would fly up to his face and search his lips anxiously. As this 

 creature, in common with other English bats, does absolutely 

 nothing but good in ridding the country of noxious insects, it is 

 to be hoped that it will henceforth receive protection at our 

 hands ; for, in addition to rendering such beneficial services, it is 

 one of the most remarkable objects in Creation, having so far 

 uttered " the last word " on the subject of ear development.^ 

 This wonderful little bat is distributed throughout Europe, 

 Temperate Asia, and Africa north of the tropics. A closely 

 allied species is found in North America. Its distribution in 

 the British Islands is encouraging (in view of the extreme 

 scarcity of other bats). It ranges over England, Ireland, and 

 Scotland, though it may be absent from the Hebrides and 

 Shetland Islands. 



Family: RHINOLOPHID^. THE LEAF-NOSED BATS 



The bats of this family develop more or less extraordinary 

 appendages round the nasal apertures. There is a tendency in 

 most bats to large nostrils, and to grooved and naked spaces 

 above and below these apertures ; and, indeed, in two genera 

 of Vespertilionida allied to Plecotus {Anthrozous and Nyctophilus) 

 there is a rudimentary nose leaf. A somewhat similar develop- 

 ment takes place in the rather distinct family Phyllostomatidie, 

 which includes the vampires. But nothing in this last-named 

 family equals the extravagant development of nose leaf to be 

 seen in some of the Rhinolophids. The ears are also remarkable 

 in that, though large, they are without any tragus, or earlet, the 

 place of which is almost filled by a remarkable lobe developed 

 from the outer margin of the ear. The pre-maxillary bones are 

 reduced to rudiments suspended from the nose cartilage, and 

 supporting one pair of small incisors. There are never more 

 than two pairs of incisors below and one pair above, and the 



1 Bell very rightly insists on this wonder, which only escapes our notice 

 because the creature that exhibits it is so small. He asks us what we should 

 think of a dog or an ass the ears of which were nearly as long as its body. 



