672 



THE THOPICAL WORLD. 



/•eason to doubt the fact. The general food of the phyllostomidas consists, however, in 

 vespertine and nocturnal moths, and Waterton is of opinion that they also partake of 

 vegetable food. The Vampire {Phyllostoma spectrum) in general, measures about 

 twenty-six inches from wing to wing extended, so that his dimensions are not equal to 

 those of the oriental kalong. Like the flying foxes, he may sometimes be seen in the 

 forest hanging in clusters, head downwards, from the branch of a tree. Some of the 

 phyllostomidae have a tongue once as long again as the head, and armed at the extrem- 

 ity with recurved bristles, like that of the wood-pecker, no doubt a very serviceable 

 instrument for extracting insects from the narrow hollows and crevices of trees and 

 rocks. 



The Rhinolophi or Horse-shoe Bats of the old continent, have also a more or less 

 complicated nasal appendage, or foliaceous membrane at the end of the nose, but dif- 

 fering in its conformation, from that of the phyllosfcomidaB. They are insectivorous, like 

 most of their order, and none of them seem to indulge in the blood-sucking propen- 

 sities of the large American vampires. They chiefly inhabit the tropical regions of 

 Africa and Asia, and more particularly the Indian archipelago, but the Rhinolophus 

 unihastatus ranges in Europe as far as England. 



Numerous genera and species of tropical bats, distinguished from each other by the 

 formation of their teeth, lips, nostrils, heads, wings, and tails, have already been 

 classified by naturalists ; but many, no doubt, still live unknown in their gloomy 

 retreats, for who is able to follow them into the obscure nooks of the forest, or in intri- 

 cate caverns, and accurately to observe them during their nocturnal rambles? It may 

 give an idea of their vast numbers throughout the torrid zone, when we hear that in 

 Ceylon alone about sixteen species have been identified, and of these two varieties are 

 peculiar to the island. Unlike the sombre bats of the northern climates, the colors of 

 some of them are as brilliant as the plumage of a bird, bright yellow, deep orange, or 

 of a rich ferruginous brown, thus contradicting the general belief which attires noc- 

 turnal animals in vestures as dark as their pursuits. 



The torrid zone, which produces the largest bats, also gives birth to the tiniest repre- 

 sentatives of the order, such as the minute Singhalese variety, {Scotophilus Goroman- 

 delicus,) which is not much larger than the humble-bee, and of a glossy black color. 

 "It is so familiar and gentle," says Sir J. E. Tennent, "that it will alight on the 

 cloth during dinner, and manifests so little alarm that it seldom makes any effort to 

 escape before a wine-glass can be inverjted to secure it." The fur of this pretty little 

 creature, like that of many other bats, is frequently found infested with a most singular 

 insect. Unlike most parasites, which are either extremely sluggish in their movements, 

 or even condemned to utter immobility, the velocity of the Nycteribia is truly mar- 

 vellous ; and, as its joints are so flexible as to yield in every direction, it tumbles 

 throuojh the fur of the bat, rotatino; like a wheel on the extremities of its spokes, or 

 like the clown in a pantomime, hurling himself forward on hands and feet alternately. 

 To assist its mountebank movements, each foot is armed with two sharp hooks, with 

 elastic pads opposed to them, so that the hair can not only be rapidly seized and firmly 

 clasped, but as quickly disengaged as the creature whirls away in its headlong career. 

 But the strangest peculiarity of the Nycteribia is the faculty which it possesses of 

 throwing back or inverting its head so completely, that the under side becoming upper- 

 most, the mouth, the eyes, and the antennae are completely hid between its shoulders, 



