MAMMALIA. 27 



side of a triangular subcordate pleat, with raised edges on the side and behind, but without 

 any edge below. Ears large, with a large separate oblique fold at the base of the upper edge 

 of the conch ; the lobule conical, erect ; the tragus short, denticulated. Limbs strong ; the 

 interfemoral membrane deeply cut out; the heel-bone short, strong; tail none. Feet 

 rather large, united to the wing to the base of the inner toe ; toes equal. Wings broad, 

 moderately thin ; the membrane between the two inner fingers, and the inner finger and 

 the fore-arm with regular parallel, transverse fibres, contracting the membrane into fine 

 regular close cancellated plaits; the middle finger with four bony joints; the thumb 

 elongate, slender, the lower joint short, webbed ; upper longer, free. The cutting teeth 

 —■ small ; upper conical, far apart ; lower close together, truncated ; canine large ; 

 grinders large, with very acute conical tubercles. Fur soft, brown, with a pencil of white 

 hairs on each shoulder. 



This genus offers the most grotesque and distorted appearance of any Bat yet 

 known. At first sight one might be induced to consider it an ill-shaped monster, 

 such as are sometimes found among young domestic animals ; but on examination 

 all the wrinkles and distortions are found to be regular, each having its fellow on 

 the opposite side of the face, and the organs are all well developed, it being only 

 one of those strange developments of form which our limited knowledge does not 

 allow us to comprehend. The muscular structure of the wing is as peculiar and 

 beautiful as the face is extraordinary and grotesque. 



The place of this genus in the family of Bats is not easy to determine, and 

 for the present I have been induced to arrange it near Ckilonycteris and Mor- 

 moops, in Noctilionina ; but it is proper to observe, that this position is only 

 temporary, for to fix it in this locality it is necessary to believe that there are 

 several genera yet undiscovered which intervene between it and them. 



The number of joints in the middle finger would show some affinity to the 

 genus Phyllostoma, and other American genera of that tribe, which are peculiar in 

 having four, while all the other Bats have only three ; but the face, though wrinkled, 

 has no pretension to having a distinct nose-leaf, any more than the genus Mor- 

 moops, though Dr. Leach, misled by the wrinkles, arranged that genus with the 

 leaf-nosed bats. 



The Wrinkled-faced Epaulet Bat.— Centurio Senex. 



Plate VII. 

 Centurio senex, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, 259. List Mam. Brit. Mus. 34. 



Fur pale brown, tips of the hairs whitish; beneath paler; small epaulet-like tuft on each side 

 pure white. Wings near the fore-arm bone and the legs covered with hair. Membrane 

 between the index and middle finger transparent white. 



Inhab. Amboyna?? 



The nostrils have a high, convex, ovate tubercle between them, ending above 



