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BATS. 
Many of these fox-bats, instead of living in trees, inhabit caves or deserted 
buildings; one species being found in numbers in the chambers of the great pyramid 
in Egypt, as well as in old buildings in Palestine; while a second was observed by 
Mr. Blanford inhabiting caves excavated in rock-salt in Kishm Island, in the 
Persian Gulf. Dr. Dobson is of opinion that different individuals of a single species 
of these bats may inhabit either caves or trees; and he further believes that those 
dwelling in caves may be distinguished from those habitually frequenting trees by 
their shorter fur. Like most other members of the family, these bats will travel 
long distances in their daily journeys for food; and it was at one time supposed 
that in Nipal they flew between thirty and forty miles out and home. This 
enormous distance has, however, been shown to be incorrect; the length of the 
daily journey really being about sixteen miles each way. 
The Epauletted Fruit-Bats. 
Genus Epomophorus. 
A striking contrast to the neat and sharp-muzzled heads of the fox-bats is 
presented by a small group of African species known as the epauletted fruit-bats, 
so named from the tufts of hair surmounting the shoulders of the males. These 
bats have fewer teeth than the fox-bats, the total number being only twenty-six 
or twenty-eight. They are readily distinguished by their remarkably large and 
long heads, with a bluntly conical or truncated muzzle, the very large, flabby, and 
expansible lips bordering the capacious mouth, and also by the presence of a tuft 
of white hair on the margins of the ears. Some of these bats are tailless, while 
others have a short tail unconnected with the membrane between the legs. In 
all the species but one, the males, which are larger than the females, are fur¬ 
nished with peculiar pouches of skin on the sides of the neck, from the interior 
of which project tufts of long yellowish hair, surmounting the shoulders, so as to 
resemble epaulettes, and thus giving origin to the popular and scientific names of 
the group. 
These bats are confined to that portion of Africa lying to the south of the 
Sahara Desert, which constitutes the greater portion of the Ethiopian region of 
zoologists, and are unknown in Madagascar. They are most abundant in the 
forest regions of the western side of the continent, especially the Gabun district. 
It is here that we meet with that most remarkable species discovered by Du 
Chaillu, known as the hammer-headed bat (Epomophorus mon.strosus), which differs 
from the rest in the absence of shoulder-tufts in the males. The head in that sex 
has an enormous muzzle, furnished with a kind of shield-like expansion in front, 
communicating a most repulsive and hideous expression to the whole face, which 
reminds one of a very ugly caricature of the head of a mule. Sir John Kirk tells 
us that the epauletted fruit-bats subsist largely on figs, and Dr. Dobson remarks 
that their voluminous and capacious lips are admirably adapted to retain and 
swallow without loss the juicy contents of these and other soft fruits during the 
process of mastication. 
