INSECTIVORA. 595 



phtis), and are often confluent above the forehead {Megaderma). 

 They are all of large size, and are natives of South America. 

 The Vampire-bat {Pkyllostoma specirum) has an expanse of wing 

 of two feet and a half, and lives chiefly upon insects. It also 

 has the habit of sucking the blood of sleeping animals, appear- 

 ing sometimes to attack even man, though apparently never 

 doing any substantial or lasting injury. 



Section B. Frugivora. — In the fruit-eating section of the 

 Cheiroptera are only the Pteropidce or . the Fox-bats, so called 

 from the resemblance of the head to that of a fox (fig. 231, B). 

 The head in these bats is long and pointed. The ears are 

 of moderate size, and the nose is destitute of any appendages. 

 Cutting incisors and canines are present in both jaws, and the 

 Fox-bats do not refuse to eat small birds or mammals. They 

 live, however, mostly upon fruits, and the "molars are therefore 

 not cuspidate, but are furnished with blunt tubercular crowns. 

 The tail is very short, or is entirely absent. The Pieropidce are 

 amongst the largest of the Bats, one species — the Pferopus 

 edulis, or Kalong — attaining a length of from four to five feet 

 from the tip of one wing to that of the other. The Pteropidce 

 are especially characteristic of the Pacific Archipelago — Java, 

 Sumatra, Borneo, &c. — but they also occur in Asia, Australia, 

 and Africa. They do not occur, however, in either North or 

 South America. 



CHAPTER. LXXXII. 

 INSECTIVORA. 



Order XII. Insectivora. — The twelfth order of Mammals 

 is that of the Insectivora, comprising a number of small Mam- 

 mals which are very similar to the Rodents in many respects, 

 but want the peculiar incisors of that order, and are likewise 

 always furnished with clavicles. 



In the Insectivora, all the three kinds of teeth are usually 

 present, but the exact nature of the dentition varies consider- 

 ably m different cases. The incisors and canines present little 

 special, but the molars are always serrated with numerous 

 small pointed eminences or cusps, adapted for crushing insects. 

 With one exception, clavicles are always present in a complete 

 form. All the feet are usually furnished with five toes ; all the 

 toes are furnished with claws ; and the animal walks on the 



