FALSE VAMPIRES. 
267 
All the members of this family, which is known as the Nycteridcv, are dis¬ 
tinguished from the horseshoe-bats and their allies by the presence of a large tragus 
in the long ears, and also by the smaller development or practical absence of the 
nose-leaf. The false vampires (. Megaderma ) are easily recognised by their enormous 
ears being united together for a longer or shorter distance by their inner margins, 
and also by the divided tragus and tall nose-leaf. Their tail is so small as to be 
practically invisible; and they have no upper incisor teeth; the total number of their 
teeth being 28 or 26, of which the incisors number the canines y, and the cheek¬ 
teeth either 4 or 4 on each side. One of the best known species of the group is the 
Indian false vampire (ill. lyra), which is found throughout India, from Kashmir to 
Ceylon, and, although at present unrecorded from Burma, reappears in China. 
Decisive evidence of its blood-sucking propensities was obtained by Blyth, who on 
one occasion saw one of these bats fly into his house with a smaller bat in its mouth, 
which it dropped when pursued. The captured bat was weak from loss of blood, 
and when put next morning into a cage with its captor was at once attacked by 
the latter, being seized behind the ear and speedily 
devoured. Canaries in Rangoon have also been 
killed by bats, probably belonging to this species 
—an inference which, if correct, proves the occur¬ 
rence of this bat in Burma. Blyth was also 
informed by a correspondent that his house was 
frequented by numbers of these bats, and that in 
the mornings the floor of the verandah was strewn 
with the debris of slaughtered frogs, large grass¬ 
hoppers, and crickets; while on one occasion the 
remains of a small fish were discovered. Frogs 
appeared, however, to be the favourite food of these 
bats, which could sometimes be heard crunching 
the bones and skulls of their victims. In corre¬ 
spondence with their different habits, the jaws and 
lips of this species, as well as of the other false vampires, differ considerably from 
those of ordinary insect-eating bats; and we may hence assume that all the species 
partake more or less extensively of an abnormal diet. The large Indian false vampire, 
which, like the other species, has no tail visible externally, measures from 3 to 31 
inches in length, while its extended wings have a span of from 14 to 19 inches. 
A second species, the Malay false vampire, extends from the Malayan region 
and Tenasserim to China, while two others are found in Africa. One of the latter 
(M. frons ) is characterised by the great height of the nose-leaf, and also by the 
length of the tragus of the ear. It is an inhabitant of the west coast. Ihese 
African species have one more upper premolar tooth than the oriental forms. 
There does not appear to be any popular name for the bats forming the 
second genus— Nycteris —of this family. They are readily distinguished from the 
false vampires by the practical absence of a distinct nose-leaf, which is represented 
only by a slit running down the middle of the face from the nostrils to the line of 
the ears, on the sides of which are small expansions of skin. Then, again, the ears, 
