This genus is represented by some nine species, which have a distribution very similar to that of Pteropus, except that they extend into Africa, and are not found in Australia and Polynesia. X. ægyptiaca inhabits the chambers of the Great Pyramid and other deserted buildings in Egypt, and is probably the species so generally figured in Egyptian frescoes. Fig. 302 exhibits an African species of this genus in the attitude assumed by the FoxBats when at rest.

Boneia. This genus, as represented by B. bidens of Borneo, differs from Xantharpyia in having only a single pair of upper

incisors.

Cynopterus.2-Dentition: i, c, P, m; total 32 or 30. Muzzle short, grooved like Pteropus in front; tail and fur generally as in Xantharpyia, but the former sometimes wholly absent. This genus, with seven species, is almost limited to the Oriental region. C. marginatus is very common in India, and extremely destructive to ripe fruit of every description. Dr. Dobson states that "he gave to a specimen of this Bat obtained at Calcutta a ripe banana, which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly 2 ounces; animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, fell upon the fruit, seizing it between the thumbs and the index fingers, and took large mouthfuls out of it, opening the mouth to the fullest extent with extreme voracity. In the space of three hours the whole fruit was consumed. Next morning the Bat was killed, and found to weigh one ounce, or half the weight of the food eaten in three hours. Indeed the animal when eating seemed to be a kind of living mill, the food passing from it almost as fast as devoured, and apparently unaltered, eating being, as it were, performed only for the pleasure of eating."

Harpyia.3-Dentition: i, c, p 3, m; total 24. Premaxillæ well developed and united in front; facial bones much elevated above the margin of the jaw, nostrils tubular (Fig. 303); body and limbs as in Cynopterus. Includes two species from the AustroMalayan subregion, readily recognised by the peculiar tubular and projecting nostrils, as shown in the accompanying woodcut.

FIG. 303.-Head of Harpyia major. (From Dobson,
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877.)

Cephalotes.-Dentition: i, c 1, p 3, m ; total 28. Pre

1 Jentink, Notes Leyd. Mus. vol. i. p. 117 (1879).-Amended. Dents des Mammifères, p. 39 (1825).

2 F. Cuvier,

Avium, p. 118 (1811).

Geoffroy, Ann. du Muséum, vol. xvi. p. 99 (1810).

maxillæ separate in front; nostrils simple; muzzle short; index finger without a claw; tail short. Includes one species, having the same distribution as Harpyia. The wing-membrane arises from the middle line of the back, to which it is attached by a longitudinal very thin process of the integument; the wings are quite naked, but the back covered by them is clothed with hair.

Pteralopex.1-External characters as in Pteropus; ears short and hairy; wings arising from the middle line of the back. Muzzle very short; plane of orbit directed more upwards than in Pteropus ; orbit surrounded by bone; sagittal crest strongly developed. Teeth cuspidate; upper incisors with broad posterior ledges; upper canine short and thick, with a stout secondary cusp in the middle of the posterior border, and two smaller postero-internal basal cusps; cheek-teeth short and broad, with their anterior and posterior basal ledges so developed and the main cusps so nearly conical as to obliterate the longitudinal grooving of Pteropus. Lower incisors very disproportionate, the outer pair being nearly twenty times the bulk of the inner; lower canine stout, with a simple posterior basal ledge. Represented by P. atrata of the Solomon Islands. As already mentioned, Mr. Thomas regards the dentition of this genus as the most generalised type found in the suborder.

Subfamily Carponycteriinæ.—Facial part of skull much produced; molars narrow, and scarcely raised above the gum; and the tongue exceedingly long, attenuated in the anterior third, and armed with long recurved papillæ near the tip.

Notopteris.2-Dentition: i, c, p, m; total 28. Index finger without a claw; wings arising from the middle line of the back; tail long; first upper premolar long, with two roots. The single representative of the genus, N. macdonaldi, inhabits the Fiji Islands, Aneiteum Island, and New Guinea. It is at once distinguished from all other Bats of this family by the length of its tail, which is nearly as long as the forearm.

Eonycteris.3-Dentition: i, c, p, m; total 34. First upper premolar small, with a single root. This genus is likewise represented by a single species (E. spelaa), from the Farm Caves, Moulmein, Burma, which has somewhat the appearance of Xantharpyia; but the absence of a claw to the index finger and the characteristic tongue and teeth at once distinguish it.

Carponycteris and Melonycteris, each with a single species, are closely allied; the index finger in both has a claw, and the number of the teeth is the same as in Eonycteris. Carponycteris minima is 2 Gray,

1 O. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. i. p. 155 (1888). Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 36. p. 204 (1873).

Mammifères, p. 40 5 Dobson, Proc. Zool.

3 Dobson, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xlii. New name: Syn. Macroglossus, F. Cuvier, Dents des (1825). Preoccupied by Macroglossum, Scopoli, 1777. Soc. 1877, p. 119.

the smallest known species of the suborder, being much smaller than the common Noctule Bat of Europe, and its forearm scarcely longer than that of the Long-eared Bat. It is nearly as common in certain parts of India as Cynopterus marginatus (compared with which it is proportionally equally destructive to fruit), and extends eastward through the Malay Archipelago as far as New Ireland, where it is associated with Melonycteris melanops, distinguished from it by its larger size and the total absence of the tail.

Nesonycteris.-Dentition: i, ci, p, m; total 32. Allied to Melonycteris, but distinguished by the absence of the inner pair of lower incisors, and of a claw to the index finger. Tail wanting. Represented by N. woodfordi, of the Solomon Islands. Callinycteris.2-Dentition: i, c, p, m; total 32. Allied to the preceding, but with a short tail; no claw to index. species from Celebes.

One

Trygenycteris.3-Dentition: i, c 1, p 3, m ; total 34. No external tail; a claw on index. One species from West Africa.

Suborder MICROCHIROPTERA.

Insectivorous (rarely frugivorous or sanguivorous) Bats, of comparatively small size. Crowns of molars acutely cusped, marked by transverse grooves; bony palate narrowing abruptly, not continued backwards laterally behind the last molar; one rudimentary phalanx (rarely two phalanges or none) in the index finger, which is never terminated by a claw; outer and inner sides of ear-conch commencing inferiorly from separate points of origin; tail, when present, contained in the interfemoral membrane, or appearing upon its upper surface; stomach simple (except in the Desmodont Phyllostomatida); Spigelian lobe of the liver very large, and the caudate generally small. Inhabit the tropical and temperate regions of both hemispheres. The members of this suborder may be divided into two sections.

Section VESPERTILIONINA.

Tail contained within the interfemoral membrane; the middle pair of upper incisors never large, and separated from each other by a more or less wide space. Middle finger with two osseous phalanges only (except in Myxopoda aurita, Thyroptera tricolor, and Mystacops tuberculatus). First phalanx of the middle finger extended (in repose) in a line with the metacarpal bone.

10. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xix. p. 417 (1887).

* Jentink, Notes Leyd. Mus. vol. xi. p. 209 (1889).

3 New name: Syn. Megaloglossus; Pagenstecher, J. B. Mus. Hamburg, vol. ii. p. 125 (1885). Preoccupied by Megaglossa, Rond., 1865.

Family RHINOLOPHIDE.

In all the species of this family the nasal appendages are highly developed, and surround the sides of the nasal apertures, which are situated in a depression on the upper surface of the muzzle; the ears are large and generally separate, without trace of a tragus; the premaxillæ are rudimentary, suspended from the nasal cartilages, and supporting a pair of very small incisors; the molars have acute W-shaped cusps; the skull is large, and the nasal bones which support the large nasal cutaneous appendages are much expanded vertically and laterally; in the females a pair of teat-like appendages are found in front of the pubis; and the tail is long and produced to the posterior margin of the interfemoral membrane. This family is found in the temperate and tropical parts of the eastern hemisphere.

From whatever point of view the Rhinolophida may be considered, they are evidently the most highly organised of insectivorous Bats. In them the osseous and cutaneous systems reach the most elaborate development. Compared with those of the present family the bones of the extremities and the flying-membranes of other Bats appear coarsely formed, and even their teeth seem less perfectly fitted to crush the hard bodies of insects. The very complicated nasal appendages, which evidently act as delicate organs of special perception, here reach their highest development, and the differences in their form afford valuable characters in the discrimination of the species, which resemble one another very closely in Identition and in the colour of the fur.

Subfamily Rhinolophinæ.-First toe with two, other toes with three, phalanges each; ilio-pectineal spine

not connected by bone with the anteroinferior surface of the ilium.

Rhinolophus.-Dentition: i, ci, p, m; total 32. Nose-leaf (Fig. 304) with a central process behind and between the nasal orifices, posterior extremity lanceolate, antitragus large. Includes more than twenty species. R. luctus, in which the forearm has a length of 3 inches, is the largest species, inhabiting elevated hill tracts in India and Malayana; R. hipposiderus of Europe, extending into South England and Ireland, forearm 1.5 inches, is one of the smallest; and R. ferrumequinum, with the forearm 2.3 inches in length, represents the average size of the species, which are mainly distinguished from one another by the form of the nose-leaf. The 1 Geoffroy, Nour. Dict. d'Hist. Nat. vol. xix. p. 383 (1803).

last-named species extends from England to Japan, and southward to the Cape of Good Hope. The genus is represented in the Himalaya by the closely allied R. tragatus, distinguished by having three vertical grooves on the lower lip, in place of the single groove found in R. ferrum-equinum. Rhinolophus is represented in the Upper Eocene Phosphorites of Central France by R. antiquus and R. dubius; the former appears to have the same dental formula as in the existing species, but differs slightly in the structure of some of the lower molars, so that it is separated generically by some writers under the name of Pseudorhinolophus. The face is also longer than in existing forms, and there are certain differences in the structure of the skull. Alastor, from the same deposits, differs from Rhinolophus by the extreme shortness of the nasal region. Palæonycteris, from the Lower Miocene of France, is said to be allied to Rhinolophus, but the premolars are, and the limb bones are stated to resemble those of Molossus.

Subfamily Hipposiderinæ.-Toes equal, of two phalanges each; ilio-pectineal spine united by a bony isthmus with a process derived from the antero-inferior surface of the ilium.

2-1

Hipposiderus.-Dentition: i, c, p, m; total 30 or 28. Tail well developed. This genus, of which more than twenty species have been described, differs

from Rhinolophus in the form of the nose-leaf, which is not lanceolate behind and is unprovided with a central process covering the nostrils. The largest species, H. armiger, appears to be the most northerly, having been taken at Amoy in China, and in the Himalaya at an elevation of 5,500 feet. Many of the species are provided with a peculiar frontal sac behind the nose-leaf, rudimentary 1877.) in females (Fig. 305), which the animal can evert at pleasure; the sides of this sac secrete a waxy substance, and its extremity supports a pencil of straight hairs.

Anthops.2-Like Hipposiderus, but with the tail rudimentary, consisting merely of three or four vertebræ hidden in the base of the interfemoral membrane. Nose-leaf very complicated, its upright transverse portion emarginate above, and the projections rounded

1 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1834, p. 53. The Bats of this genus are usually described as Phyllorhina, but this use has been shown to be incorrect; see Blanford, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, p. 637.

2 O. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. i. p. 156 (1888).