♦ 



550 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVII, 



to the surface with feet drawn in and toes widely spread. The first and fifth 

 digits of all the Molossidse in our collection show a remarkable growth of 

 bristly hairs of unequal length (Fig. 20, p. 556). Most of the longer ones are 

 recurved, nearly hooked at their tips, and grow on the exterior margin of 

 these two toes and about all the claws. The shorter ones are especially 

 numerous on the lower surface of these two toes, sometimes forming dense 

 rows ; most of them show a clearly spatulate tip which on superficial inspec- 



Fig. 25. Wing of Chserephon russalus. A. Viewed from below, almost completely folded; 

 extended wing in dotted lines. B. Tip of half -open wing, also from beneath, showing the rotation 

 necessary at a, the joint between metacarpal and first phalanx of digit 3, to bring it into position for 

 flight, f. 



tion gives the impression that they have been singed. These curious hairs 

 have undoubtedly a tactile function, as one might surmise from seeing the 

 bats moving and spreading their toes. Their tiny sharp claws, guided by 

 these tactile brushes, are able to take advantage more rapidly of even, the 

 slightest unevenness in rock or wood to which they cling. 



We do not think that the function of these spoon-hairs as a comb is very 

 important, though we realize that the short-haired molossids being generally 

 gregarious and living habitually in the very same places for long periods 

 might naturally be infested by the so-called bat-lice (p. 559), yet as a 

 rule they seem to be free from them. We collected nycteribiids only as we 

 happened to notice them in handling the bats, but while we were in a bat 

 cave near Thysville with Dr. Bequaert, who was especially interested 

 in these parasites, we investigated our bats as quickly as they were 

 caught, and secured as many as five bat-lice from a single vespertilionid, 

 Miniopterus inflatus, which lived there by the hundreds. From thir- 

 teen specimens Dr. Bequaert, who will later publish a special paper on 

 the Nycteribiidse, could identify three different bat-lice (p. 559). 



On the other hand nycteribiids are probably rarer on such long-haired 



