98 TlMEHRI. 
reaching to the extremity of the interfemoral membrane. 
With the exception of the four species, Vampyrus spec- 
trum, Desmodus rufus (?) y Rhynchonycleris naso and 
Thyroptera tricolor, all the other forms have been ob- 
tained about, or in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Georgetown. 
Vampyrus speclrum, the largest of the American bats, 
and in fa6t, the largest of all other bats except the 
great Fox-bats of the East Indies which reach to a stretch 
of wing of even more than five feet, will readily be known 
by its large body and the wide stretch of its wings which 
often reach to more than three feet. There is an old 
specimen in the British Guiana Museum— the exact 
locality of which is unfortunately not recorded — which is 
more than three feet in length, with a length of fore-arm 
(a character which appears to be a feature of consider- 
able importance in the diagnoses of species) of nearly six 
inches. Within the last five years, three specimens were 
caught by chance in the Manager's house, into which they 
had flown at night, and were forwarded to me from 
Plantation Melville, on the Mahaica creek, and this is the 
only exa6l recorded locality in the colony for the species. 
From a very large hollow tree, in the yard of this 
same estate, I once made the attempt with others, to 
capture sets of what, from their great size, could 
have been no other species of bat than this — though 
several smaller specimens, probably of some other 
species, were mixed up with them, Various aper- 
tures in the trunk were stopped up to force the in- 
habitants to make their exit by one special hole, at which 
dense smoke was made ; but the effort was unavailing 
since all along the trunk and great branches, there seemed 
