23 
SALOON.] NATURAL HISTORY. 
Linn.) ; the Small Ant-eater ( Myrmecophaga didactyla y 
Linn.), from South America; and the Ornithorhynchus, 
or Duck-billed Platypus (O. Paradoxus, Blumenb.), from 
New Holland. 
The forms of the Armadillo and the Manis, and the 
curious shields with which they are furnished by nature 
are sufficiently wonderful; but the structure of the Orni¬ 
thorhynchus is so anomalous, that Dr. Shaw, who first 
described this “ most extraordinary genus ” in the Natu¬ 
ralist's Miscellany, hesitated whether to admit it into his 
History of Quadrupeds, in the first volume of his General 
Zoology,—for as the original description was given from 
the only individual at that time known, “ it was,” he 
tells us, “ impossible not to entertain some doubts as 
to the genuine nature of the animal, and to surmise, 
that though in appearance perfectly natural, there might 
still have been practised some arts of deception in its 
structure.” An animal, “ exhibiting the perfect resem¬ 
blance of the beak of a duck engrafted on the head of 
a quadruped,” might well excite suspicions of imposture, 
till its claim to be received as a genuine production of 
nature was confirmed by the arrival of other specimens 
from the same locality. 
Case 25 contains the frugivorous Bats ( Pteropi ), as 
the Egyptian Bat ( Pteropus JEgyptiacus), the Striped¬ 
eared Bat (P. marginatus ), from India, and the Kiodote 
( p■ rostratus , Horsf.), from Java. 
Case 26 contains the Horse-shoe Bats ( Rhinolophi ), 
peculiar for having a very complicated apparatus over the 
nostrils, as the larger and smaller Horse-shoe Bat of 
England, and several foreign species. 
Cases 27 and 28 contain specimens of those Bats which 
are distinguished by having foliaceous, membranous ap¬ 
pendages to the nose. These membranes vary considerably 
in form and number, and the individuals which are fur¬ 
nished with them, constitute, according to modern authors, 
several distinct genera. In this Case is a specimen of 
the Spectre, or Vampire Bat ( Phyllostoma spectrum ), and 
other species of the same genus; and also one of the true 
Blood-sucking Bats ( Glossophaga ecaudata , Geoff.), from 
Brazil; and a Rhinopoma, from India ( Rhinopoma Hard - 
tvickii, Gray). 
