FAMILY INSECTIVORA.— INSECTIVOROUS BATS. 
15 
The whole of the membrane is diaphanous, and of a bright brown co- 
lour. 
The entire length of this Bat, including the tail, (half an inch,) is 
about six and a half inches, and the extreme breadth two feet and a 
half, sometimes a trifle more. These dimensions do not depend always 
on age, but also on locality; those of Amboyna being larger than those 
of Banda, and those of Timor less than these last. This great animal 
retires and conceals itself during the day in caverns and among the clefts 
of the rocks ; from which inaccessible hiding-places it usually issues only 
at the twilight. It flies with rapidity, is not very social with the allied 
genera, bites very cruelly, and occasions an abominable odour, although 
destitute of the unctuous apparatus possessed by some of the previously 
desciibed species. 
It inhabits Banda, Samao, Timor, and Amboyna, in large numbers ; 
but has not hitherto been seen in Java. 
IMAGINARY SPECIES. 
1. Cephalotes Molluccensis of MM. Quoy and Gaimard (Voy. de 
1’ Astrolabe, P. Zool. vol. I. p. 86) is distinguished only by trifling indivi- 
dual peculiarities. 
M>te . — Cephalotes Pallasii is now transferred to the Genus Harpyia. 
FAMILY II. INSECTIVORA. — INSECTIVOROUS BATS. 
Syn. Les Vraies Chauve— Souris — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 114. 
CHARACTERS OF THE FAMILY. 
The Molar Teeth studded with conical points. 
The Index with one or two phalanges only, always without a nail. 
Inhabit the tropical or temperate parts of the whole globe. 
Having fully discussed the characters of the Frugivorous Bats, 
we now arrive at the Proper Bats, which are all Insectivorous. Their 
molar teeth, three in number on either side of each jaw, and studded 
with conical points, are preceded by a variable number of false mo- 
lars. The index finger is always deprived of the nail, and with the 
exception of one sub-genus, the membrane extends between the 
thighs. 
We have already had occasion (p. 3) to notice the recent and interest- 
ing discovery ofM. Isidore Geoffioy in the osteology of the Bats, namely, 
that they have a bone connected with the elbow-joint in all respects an- 
swering to the knee-pan. This interesting structure is most marked in 
the Frugivorous Bats, but continues sufficiently striking in most of the 
Insectivorous; the genus Vespertilio supplying the only partial exception, 
being in them entirely hid in the tendon of the triceps muscle. M. Fem- 
minck enumerates the following as the functions to which this peculiar 
apparatus is subservient. Most of the Bats, he remarks, possess the 
power of using their wings, or membranes, in the capacity of hands, the 
wing being moveable in all directions, and susceptible of prehension. 
The structure of the wing accordingly corresponds to these functions, as 
they supply hands to seize, feet to walk, and wings to fly, the Elbaw-pan, 
as we may term it, being used in their crawling gait, and in affording sup- 
port on the ground, in the same way as the knee-pan in the other 
classes of the Mammalia, M. Brehm has made the same remark, and 
adds that in this respect the Bats differ from Birds, which never employ 
their winas in seizing or retaining an object, or in supporting their body, 
except when flying. 
In the Imeciivorous Chiroptera the thumb is always very short, being 
composed of a single articulation, and of a claw with its phalanx , the 
fore-finger always wants the n.iil and the unguinal phalanx. 1 he interfe- 
moral membrane, with one exception, is very ample, most frequently en- 
veloping the whole of the tail by means of strong tendons and of a ten- 
dinous prolongation from the heel. This apparatus, directed towards 
the abdomen, is employed in retaining the j'oung as in a sac during flight. 
From M. Teinrninck we learn that a fact hitherto inexplicable, has 
received an explanation from recent observations made upon these 
winged Mammiform. We allude to a curious circumstance noticed in 
the capture of these animals. In the haunts where they have been found 
iu numbers, at one time, only males have invariably been obtained, at 
another only females, and, finally, at others a heap of young only, without 
a single adult of either sex. The habits of the animals, as lately ob- 
served, afl'ord an explication of these isolated unions. For it would ap- 
pear that the two sexes never resort to the same retreat ; but immedi- 
ately when their amours are cnrled, the females retire, always in com- 
pany, and often in great flocks, into narrow chinks far from the company 
of the males, who in their turn associate in bands ; the sexes remain thus 
separated till the young are in a state to fly about and take care o*^ them- 
selves ; after which they quit the society of their mothers, and choose a 
new retreat, where individuals of the same age assemble, and which sepa- 
rate into their several sexes about the time of their love season. M. 
Brehm has verified a part of these observations upon several of the Eu- 
ropean species of Vespertilio ; and testimonies to the same effect have 
been communicated by the Dutch Naturalists in the East Indies. Facts 
speak quite as distinctly to the point, for M. Temminck assures us that 
parcels of these Bats, coming from all parts of the world, when obtained 
in their native haunts are invariably composed of males, or females, or 
their young exclusively. Up to the present time, he adds, we have ob- 
tained females only of some species belonging to the Great Asiatic Archi- 
pelago, and probably from the resorts of the males not having as yet been 
discovered by Naturalists. 
Two of the reflections of the eminent conservator of the Leyden Mu- 
seum, after his review of the whole order, are so important that we must 
not omit them. 1st, He states that his researches lead him to conclude 
that in some species the function of reproduction goes on chiefly, if not 
solely, not when the animals appear to have attained their full maturity, 
but apparently at an earlier period. The sutures of the cranium in the 
class thus signalized indicate that they have not reached their full growth, 
and their length of body and span across the wings are slri/cinglt/ smaller 
than in their fellows, whose strong occipital and coronal crests, and every 
other sign, indicate that they have attained the ma.ximum of their de- 
velopments. Some species of the genera Molossus, Pachysotna and 
Pteropus, have supplied the matter for this remark, which M. Temminck 
considers, in the present state of our knowledge, very inexplicable. 2d, 
His concluding observation respects the markings of the Chiroptera. In 
some of the species, and more especially of the Insectivorous family, he 
has observed that there is a perfect resemblance in the colouiing of the 
fur of the two sexes ; and when there is a difference, it is .always a reddish 
colour more or less pure, which distinguishes the livery of the female 
whilst the male is marked with brown or grey. When, however, the 
males, and sometimes those of the other sex also, are provided with unc- 
tuous bunches at the sides of the neck, and generally with all the frugi- 
verous family, it is the male which is adorned with red, and when there 
is a difference in colouring, the female wears the dull and more obscure 
livery. His study of the colours of the Chiroptera also lead to the con- 
jecture that, as iu Birds, they are prob.nbly subject to a double moult, and 
thus have one dress for summer and another for winter. 
The Insectivorous Bats may be subdivided into two principal 
tribes. The first has the middle finger of the membrane, with three 
ossified phalanges, but the other fingers, as well as the index, have 
only two. The second tribe has only one ossified phalanx for the 
index, and the other fingers have two [or three.] 
M. Spix subdivides the Insectivorous Bats into Istiophori, or Leaf.- 
nosed Bats, and into Anistiophori, which have the nose simple, and wholly 
de.stitute of that singular nasal appendage. By combining his arrangement, 
with the preceding, we form four tribes corresponding nearly with those 
indicated by M. Lesson, and in our own country by Mr Gray, under the 
names of Noctilionina, Phyllostomina, Rhinolophina, and Vrspeh- 
TILIONINA, 
