1847.] The Slaty blue Magaderme. 893 



silky hair of one kind that is laxly applied to the skin, and more or 

 less wavy in some specimens, smooth in others. The flying apparatus, 

 or alar and caudal membranes, are very ample, the latter being extend- 

 ed to the heel or tarse, and so as, when expanded, to run straight across 

 from heel to heel. The alar membrane commences at the centre of the 

 forearm's length, takes in the first joint of the thumb, makes a large 

 angle so as to envelope the long mid-finger, and then passes pretty 

 evenly to the heel. There is no trace of tail, nor any caudal vertebrae. 

 The thumb has two equal bony joints, whereof the first is enveloped in 

 membrane and the second free and nailed as usual. The index has one 

 entire joint and a second rudimental, which however is half an inch long 

 nearly, and all the other digits have three complete bony phalanges 

 each. There are two pectoral and two enguinal teats, whereof the latter 

 are the larger and bear more appearance of having been sucked. The 

 penis is pendant : the tests internal : the womb simple ; there is no 

 frontal sinus : stomach purely membranous and globose, with proximate 

 orifaces : intestines from 11 to 14 inches, of pretty equal calibre, 

 and having a grain-like ccecum, •§- inch long, at 1 to 1^ inches from the 

 anal end of the gut : great arch of stomach 3 to 3y ; lesser \ to j : 

 Lungs 2-lobed : Liver 2-lobed, each subdivided, and a lobulus : Gall- 

 bladder grain-like (size and shape of a grain of finest rice) and freely 

 suspended in the cleft of the largest lobe of the liver. Contents of 

 stomachs, insect remains solely : of uteri, single young, much advanced 

 in growth, with all the organs formed and the mouth open, but quite 

 nude. The scull, the walls of which are as thin as paper, is much 

 curved culmenally and very ample in dimensions in all the regions of the 

 brain : the crests, longitudinal and transverse, small but traceable : the 

 frontals flat, short and laterally bounded by sharp ridges : the nasals,* 

 wanting : orbits large and very incomplete : auditory cavities double i 

 lower jaw straight with very low condyles. Teeth £ : |:| |:f . No 

 trace of incisors in the upper jaw, nor of any bone or cartilage to sup- 



* The deficient bones are apparently not merely the intermaxillars but the nasals, of 

 Avhich there is no trace, and the cavity in front of the scull is consequently very large. 

 However in all the 7 specimens now before me the cranial sutures are well nigh or 

 wholly obliterated. Quere? Are not the nasal bones wanting in all the typically istio- 

 phorous Bats ? for, if not, how could the complex and delicate external apparatus of the 

 nose have the requisite freedom of communication with the nervous and circulating sys- 

 tems, there being no special orifaces observable in the malars or frontals. In fact, the 

 ant-orbitar formamina are very small in these Bat8, and J have noticed no others. 



5 z 2 



