72 



IVUMMALIA. 



Two or three species are knon'ii, of moderate but not large size.* One was taken in the act of suckini; blood 

 from the neck of a Horse, by Mr. Darwin. It is probable that their external similitude to the Phyllostomes has 

 occasioned the latter to be accused of a sanguivorous propensity, for which their structure seems to be at 

 most but partially adapted, while that of the present genus is obviously expressly designed for this mode of Hfe. 

 Compare the figures given of the dentition of the t\io g'enera.] 



In the second grand tribe of Bats, tbe index has only one bony phalanx, "while all the other fingers 

 have two. This tribe also requires to be divided into several subgenera. 



The Megaderms {Megaderrnay Geof.) — 

 Have the nasal membrane Diore complicated than in the Phyllostomes ; the tragus large and most 

 commonly bifurcated ; the conch of the ears very ample, and joined together on the top of the head ; 

 the tongue and the hps smooth ; interfemoral membrane 

 entire, and there is no taiL They have four incisors below^, 

 but none above, and their intermaxillaries remain carti- 

 laginous. [Their wings are remarkaljly ample, the whole 

 cutaueous system of these animals being excessively de- ; 

 veloped. I 



Four species are known ; two from Africa, the others from 

 the Indian archipelago. One of the former (M. frons, fig. 14) 

 has the body covered with long hair, of most delicately fine 

 texture; it constitutes the division Lavla of Gray.] Tliey are 

 distinguished by the figure of the leaf, like the Phyllostomes. 



The Rhinolphines (Rhinolophus, Geof. and Cuv. \_Nociilio 

 Bcchst.]), vulgarly termed Horse-shoe Bats. 

 These have the nose furnished with very complicated 

 membranes and crests resting on the forehead, and al- 

 together presenting [more or less] the figure of a horse- 

 shoe ; their tail is long, and placed in the interfemoral 

 membrane. They have four incisors below", and two small 

 ones above, fixed in a cartilaginous intermaxillan,^ 



Two species are very common in France [and found sparingly 

 and locally in Englandt], — Vesp. ferrum-equinum, Lin., or Rh. 

 bifer, Geof., and Vesp. hipposideros, Bechstein. Tliey both 

 inhabit quarries [cathedrals, &c.], where they hang solitarily [?] suspended by tbe feet, and enveloping the n- 

 selves with their wings, so that no part of their body is visible. [They dilfer chiefly in size, but in this con- 

 siderably ; the larger measuring 13 inches across, the other 8^ inches. 



More than twenty species are known, all from 

 the eastern hemisphere. Tliey fall under two 

 divisions, of which the extremes are shown in 

 the accompanying representation (fig. 15) ; but 

 tbe majority are of intei-mediate character, like 

 the two which inhabit Europe. Those with 

 membranous crests have the tragus distinct, 

 and sometimes considerably developed ; the 

 others have no separated tragus, and compose 

 the divisions Illpposidaros, Gray, (identical with 

 Plullorhina., Bonap.) and Aseltia, Gray : AriieuA 

 of the same systematist referring to a member of 

 the former sub-group, which is destitute of tail, 

 and almost of interfemoral membrane ; charac- 

 ters, however, to which other species approxi- 

 mate. They inhabit the darkest caverns, in vast m altitudes, the sexes and young in separate assembla"-es. 

 Penetrating to more deeply obscure recesses than any of the others, it is probable that their facial appendages are 

 endowed with exquisite sensibility, for the still further extension of that delicacy of the sense of touch, by which 

 others of this family are enabled to guide themselves when deprived of vision : the dryness of those membranes 

 intiinates that they are not olfactory. Certain ingmnal glands, more or less distinctly developed in thesrt 

 annuals, have been erroneously described as mammary teats. 



-Mepade, 



Fig. 15. — UbiiLoloplm; 



R. inaiguifl 



■cnflon to suspect that the gei 



t A Br 



I Kuifl nui„. 



