152 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
This species is said to inhabit old edifices and caverns, and to live by preference on 
moths; and Geoffroy adds :—“ Ils attendent qiie la unit paraisse pour se livrer a toutes 
les inspirations de leur bien-etre; c’est a quoi nous avoirs fait allusion, en leur donnant 
le nom de nvctinome.” 
%/ 
Fig. 1. 
E. Geoflfroy St.-Hilaire does not state in rvhat part of Egypt he met with this bat, 
and it is strange that no museum, that I am aware of, possesses a specimen which maj' 
undoubtedly be ascribed to Egypt proper. 
The flight of the bats of this genus, owing to their having narrow wings, is direct 
and devoid of all fluttering motion, and Swinhoe states that it can easily be dis¬ 
tinguished on a cloudless evening high in the air, owing to the character of the organs 
of flight. 
Swinhoe ^ has observed in the Amoy bat, described by Blyth as N. insignis, that the 
creature when irritated had the habit of exposing its tail by extruding and again 
drawing it within the interfemoral membrane, and of sinking its eyes into their sockets 
and thrusting them out again. This appearance was probably due to the contraction of 
the membrane around the eyes, wliich were noticed to be hidden in the recess formed 
by the protruding ears. 
There is a curious discrepancy between Geoffrey’s and Temminck’s description of 
the type of the genus, said to be preserved in the Paris Museum. The former author, 
in his account of the bat, says that the ears were “ unies I’line et fautre par leurs bords 
internes,” whereas Temminck describes them as “ leur bord interne non reuni.” 
The latter aiuhor also directed attention to the fact that, whereas Geoffroy stated in 
^ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 620. 
