THE TOME BAT. 
315 
of them sleeping suspended from the surfaces of perpendicular rocks, under the shade of the overhang- 
ing trees and shrubs. They are said to be unsavoury little beasts, their presence being perceptible, 
even at a considerable distance, by the strong and disagreeable odour with which they contaminate 
the air.* 
THE TOMB BAT.f 
During the French expedition to Egypt under the first Napoleon, M. Geoffroy, one of the savants 
who accompanied the army, discovered a species of Bat inhabiting the tombs of the ancient kings of 
Egypt, which differed in many important characters from all previously 
known Bats. He made it the type of a new genus, to which he gave 
the name of Taphozous , in allusion to its tomb-haunting habits. Borne 
other species have since been discovered in various parts of the Eastern 
hemisphere. 
The Taphozoi have a rather short and broad head, with a tapering 
muzzle, its breadth behind the eyes being due to the wideness of the 
zygomatic arches. The ears are separate, and their outer margins sweep 
round upon the cheek, terminating near the angle of the mouth ; the 
tragus is short, somewhat widened at the apex, so as generally to 
have a hatchet shape; the wings are long and narrow, and the in- 
terfemorai membrane is ample, and stretched by very long spurs, between the tips of which its 
hinder margin is concave ; the base of the tail is enclosed in the membrane, from which its tip 
projects. The teeth, especially the canines and upper true molars, are powerful, and the latter show the 
W-shaped cusps very distinctly. There are three molars and two pre-molars in each jaw, but in the 
upper jaw the hindmost molar is reduced to a narrow transverse plate, as shown in the figure, 
and the first pre-molar is so small as scarcely to project above the gum. In the lower jaw there 
are four small incisors ; but in the upper jaw the pre-maxillary bones are represented only by cartilage, 
which in the young, and sometimes in adult animals, bears a pair of minute teeth, separated from each 
other by a wide space, but these apparently frequently drop out as the animal advances in age. In 
consequence of this structure, the skull presents a peculiar appear- 
ance. The intermaxillary cartilage being lost, the front of the 
face presents a deep notch between two projecting processes which 
bear the canine teeth, and even during life the lower jaw extends 
further forward than the upper one, so that its incisor teeth press 
only against the upper lip. 
Another curious character presented by most of these Bats is 
the existence under the chin of a peculiar pouch (see figure, p. 316), 
which sometimes occurs in both sexes, although smaller in the 
females, and is sometimes altogether wanting in the latter. In 
some, the place of this sac, which is evidently of a glandular nature, 
seems to be represented by a group of small pores. The purpose of 
this peculiar arrangement is not clearly known ; but from the 
greater development of the organ in the males of those species 
which possess it, it would appear to be of a sexual character. The 
peculiar wing-pouches which characterise the genus Saccopteryx are 
wanting in these Bats ; but in most of them there is a small membranous band, enclosing the angle 
formed by the tip of the fore-arm and the base of the fifth linger, and thus forming a little pouch. 
The Tomb Bat ( Taphozous perfovatus) is one of those which presents a pouch of this description, 
and the male also possesses a large tliroat-sac, which is altogether wanting in the females. It is about 
three inches in length, exclusive of the tail, which is thin at the extremity ; the wing-membranes 
# Other known species are Emballonura nigrescent from Amboyna, Ternate, and Australia ; and E. semicaudata, an 
inhabitant of the Samoa, Fiji, and Pelew Islands. An allied African species is Col'eura afra, which, however, presents some; 
characters indicating a relationship to the American Saccopteryx . 
t Taphozous perfovatus , 
SKULL OF TOMB BAT, ENLARGED. 
