14S 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
the Pyramids, Thebes, Assuan, the caverns of Mt. Quarantania overlooking the Plain 
of Jericho, and from Maskat. Although the female bats from the last locality are 
amongst the smallest of their sex, the condition of their teats proves that they have 
all been mothers. It is thus quite evident that this species begins to breed at a very 
early age, as seems to be the case with bats generally, and when one reflects how 
densely packed together the sexes are—thousands in comparatively limited areas, 
in the case of very many species—there is nothing remarkable in their so doing; but 
what is more astonishing is the extent to which inbreeding must exist. This species 
of bat has doubtless inhabited the Pyramids for nearly 3000 years, as it was some 
time in the XXth Dynasty that the Great Pyramid was rifled for the first time, an 
episode in its history which was the means of this and of other species of bats becoming 
tenants of its recesses and chambers. There they have remained ever since, and the 
original pairs that first gained possession bred, and their descendants have continued 
to do so exclusively among themselves, as bats do not copulate on the wing; and, 
moreover, there is no evidence that the Microchiropteia migrate from place to place. 
As all the colonies of the difierent species of bats at present tenanting the ruins of 
Egypt have doubtless had a similar history, it would be of great interest to compare 
examples of these with specimens of the same species that were in the flesh 3000 years 
ago, but whose skeletons have been handed down to us in the form of mummies. 
The incessant inbreeding of these bats, and the uniformity of the conditions under 
which they have lived, would render such a comparison of the highest interest; but so 
slow is variation, that in all probability no difference would be detected between the 
recent bat and its ancestor in an unbroken line of 3000 years. 
In the case of Bhinopoma, so well defined from all other bats, such a comparison 
would be of especial interest. 
In a female captured by me in Belzoni’s Tomb (Tombs of the Kings) there is an 
entire absence of the tail, not attributable to any injury but to suppression. 
In the males a great deposit of yellow fat, such as is present also in the members of 
the genus Tapliozous, involves the greater part of the interfemoral membrane from the 
point of exit of the tail forwards to the lower part of the belly. It also invests the 
groin, and part of the abdomen and one half of the thigh. In adolescents it is 
less developed and it is entirely absent in the young. In one of the youngest 
males from Upper Egypt there is no trace of it in the interfemoral membrane, but the 
upper half of the thigh is much swollen by a deposit of fat. It is quite as well 
developed in the adult females as in the males. In the female in which the tail has 
been completely suppressed there is but little fat present. 
What function this substance performs in the economy of the animal is still unknown. 
Dobson suggested that it “ is laid up on the approach of the hibernating season.” The 
specimens which suggested this possible explanation to Dobson had been obtained 
