318 
NATURAL HIS TOUT. 
give them almost a tubular appearance ; and the lower lip, which is also thickened, bears several 
curious folds of skin ; the whole in combination giving a most singular and forbidding expression to 
the little creature. The wing-membranes descend but little below the knee, but the interfemoral 
membrane is ample, stretched by very long spurs, and traversed in its basal part by the short tail, the 
tip of which projects from its upper surface like a little knob. 
The Great Hare-lipped Bat ( NoctiUo leporinus), which is distributed over the whole of tropical and 
sub-tropical South America, from the West Indies in the north to Paraguay and Chili in the south, is 
about three inches and three-quarters in length without the tail, and has an expanse of wing of about 
twenty-one inches. The general colour of the fur on the back is greyish-brown or reddish-brown, but 
in many specimens a yellowish-white streak runs from the nape down the middle of the back to the 
root of the tail. The throat, neck, and belly are reddish-yellow, the ears, membranes, and other naked 
parts blackish-brown. The interfemoral membrane extends about two inches beyond the tail, which is 
three-quarters of an inch long, and the lieel-spurs are more than an inch in length. 
This Bat lives in large parties in hollow trees, caverns, the roofs of buildings, and even among 
the dense foliage of trees, but generally in the immediate vicinity of water. In the twilight they are 
seen in great numbers Hying, almost in the same way as the Swallows in Europe, in great flocks over 
the surface of the water, close to which they skim with a very rapid flight in pursuit of the insects 
which constitute their food. The voice is described by Prince Maximilian of Neuwied as a hissing 
sound. According to an observation made by Mr. Louis Fraser in Ecuador, the object of the Noctilio 
in haunting the waters is not so peaceful as that of most bats, which, so far as we know, resort to the 
lakes and rivers only to drink. Mr. Fraser describes it as flying along the banks of rivers, and from 
time to time dashing down upon the surface of the water, where it captures small Crustaceans as they 
swim up the stream. He adds that the Bats have a fishy odour, and possibly they do not strictly 
confine themselves to invertebrate prey.* 
CESTONTS BAT.f 
We come now to a series of Bats (the Molosd of Professor Peters and Mr. Dobson) which we 
shall treat here as belonging to three genera, the classification and nomenclature of which are attended 
with considerable difficulty, partly owing to the variability of characters on which we are accustomed to 
rely in the definition of generic groups, and partly to the confusion which has arisen in the use of the 
generic names employed especially by the older writers. They are all stoutly and rather clumsily 
built Bats, with short, thick muzzles, a character which has obtained for some of them the name of 
Bulldog Bats ; the tail is thick, and projects beyond the margin of the interfemoral membrane, the 
hinder limbs are short and stout, and the fibula or second bone in the shank is well developed, often 
nearly as large as the tibia. 
In the genus Nyctinomus , as we shall here restrict it, the ears are large, and generally united 
upon the forehead or on the muzzle in front of the eyes, either directly or by a fold of skin, and furnished 
with a distinct tragus, and the upper lip is more or less distinctly 
folded or wrinkled. The intermaxillary bones are generally separated 
by a cleft ; and in all the species they bear two incisor teeth, which 
are separated by a space from each other and from the canines, whilst 
the lower jaw has six incisors in young animals, and usually only 
toni’s bat. ( After Temmmch.) four in the adults. The canines are strong, and followed in the upper 
jaw by either four or five teeth, the number of premolars being either 
one or two. In the lower jaw there are always two premolars, and three true molars. The first and 
fifth toes are much thicker than the rest. The species of this genus occur in the warmer parts of both 
hemispheres. 
Cestoni’s Bat, originally discovered at Pisa, is the only species of the group that occurs in 
Europe, and forms the type of the genus D inops of Professor Savi, now regarded as a sub-genus of 
Nyctinomus. It is one of the species with five molars in each jaw, and six incisors permanently in the 
SKULL AND FRONT TEETH OF CES- 
* The White-bellied Hare -lipped Bat (N. albiventris) is also an inhabitant of South America, 
f Nyctinomus Ccstonii. 
