328 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
on Mr. Fraser’s statement, suggests tliat tlie blood-sucking was performed by the Desmodonts, which 
accompanied the Javelin Bat in Mr. Frasers collection, and the guilt transferred to the larger and 
more striking species ; and the same explana- 
tion may apply to the accounts given by Mr. 
Wallace and Prince Maximilian, both of whom 
apparently charge the Javelin Bat with san- 
guinivorous proclivities solely upon circum- 
stantial evidence. If this be the case, Phyllos - 
ioma hastcitum must be regarded as a very 
unfortunate animal. Professor Bernhardt 
agrees wdtli Mr. Tomes in considering the 
Desmodonts ( Desmodas and Diphylla) the only 
blood-sucking Bats, and they appear to be the 
only forms that have been actually taken in 
the fact. 
At the same time we are perhaps hardly 
justified in passing a verdict of not guilty in 
the case of some of the other species, for 
mouth or spectacled stex odeum. certain observers record the finding of blood 
in the stomach, and by others the structure 
of the mouth is looked upon as furnishing circumstantial evidence of sanguinary propensities. 
Thus Professor Beil says that the tongue in the genus PhyUostoma has a number of wart-like 
elevations, so arranged as to form a complete circular suctorial disc when they are brought into 
contact at their sides, which is effected by a set of muscular fibres having a tendon attached to 
each of the warts. By means of this curious sucker, he adds, those Bats are enabled to suck 
the blood of annuals and the juice 
of succulent fruits. According to 
other writers the papillae which are 
borne by the lips (see figure), and which 
seem to have some analogy with the 
wrinkles occurring on the lips of the 
Mastiff Bats, serve this same office; and 
Prince Maximilian especially describes 
the mode in which the lips in the 
Javelin Bat may be converted into a 
sucking-canal. It is to be observed, 
however, that these papilla* are greatly 
developed in species which are now 
known to derive the whole or the 
greater part of their nourishment from 
fruits. 
BLAINVILLE’S BAT.* 
A most grotesque species of Bat, 
the position of which has been a subject 
of some discussion, as it seems to be 
almost equally related to the Embal- 
lomiridce on the one hand, and to the head of blaixville’s bat. {After Peters.) 
Phyllostomidce on the other, was de- 
scribed many years ago (in 1821) by the late Dr. Leach under the name of Ad or mops Blainvillii. As 
regards the development of the cutaneous system about the face, this species is without exception the 
# Monnops Btamvilln. 
