Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/431

Rh CHIROPTEKA.] thumb quite free, and the wing-membrane is very narrow and folded in repose .completely under the forearm. The relative development of the interfemoral membrane has been referred to above in describing the caudal vertebrae. Its small size in the frugivorous and sanguivorous species, which do not require it, to which, indeed, its presence would be actually in jurious as impeding their motions when searching for food as they hang suspended by their feet, is easily understood. Odorifer ous glands and pouches ,-. c FIG. G8. Frontal Sac and Nose-Leaf iu Male and Opening On the Slirlace Femalo of phyllofhina, larvala. Dobsun, of the outer skin are Proc. Zooi. Soc., 1873. developed in many species, but in most cases more so in males than in females, and so constitute very remark able secondary sexual characters. They will be referred to when treating of the peculiarities of certain species. (See also the writer s paper &quot;On Secondary Sexual Characters in Chiroptera&quot; Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1873, pp. 241-252.) Space does not admit of entering here upon a special description of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, urinary, and generative organs, which will be found fully treated of in the works noted in the bibliography of the order below, and therefore with the above short account of the general structure of the species we proceed to consider their classification and geographical distribution. The Chiroptera fall naturally into two subdivisions, which may be called suborders. SUBORDER I. MEGACHIROPTEEA. Frugivorous Bats, generally of large size, having the crowns of the molar teeth smooth, marked with a longitudinal groove ; with the bony palate continued behind the last molar narrowing slowly backwards ; with three phalanges in the index finger, the third phalanx terminated generally by a claw ; with the sides of the ear- conch forming a complete ring at the base ; with the tail, when present, inferior to (not contained in) the interfemoral membrane ; with the pyloric extremity of the stomach generally much elongated ; and with the Spigelian lobe of the liver ill-defined or absent, while the caudate is well developed. Frugivorous ; limited to the tropical and subtropical parts of the Eastern Hemisphere. Family PTEROPODID.E. The characters of the single family are those of the suborder. Epomophorus, i f (or ), c |, pm f, m ^ ; tail very short or none, when present quite free from the interfemoral membrane ; second finger with a claw ; premaxillary bones united in front. The six species include some of the most remarkable forms of fruit- eating Bats. They are strictly limited to the African continent south of the Sahara, and are readily distinguished by their remark ably large and long head and very expansible, often peculiarly folded, lips, and by the invariable white tuft of hair which adorns the margins of the ears ; most of the species also are provided with peculiar glandular pouches, situated in the integument of the side of the neck near the pornt of the shoulder. These pouches are rudimentary or quite absent in females, thus presenting an interest ing secondary sexual character. In the males they are lined with a glandular membrane, from which long coarse yellowish hairs arise, and, projecting from the mouth of the pouches, form conspicuous epaulet-like tufts on the shoulders, hence the generic name. Another and even still more remarkable secondary sexual character has been recently discovered by the writer in the males of E. franqucti, comptus, pusillus, and monstrosus. This consists in the presence of a pair of large air-sacs extending outwards on each side from the pharynx beneath the integument of the neck, in the position shown in fig. 67. These sacs are evidently capable of being greatly distended at the will of the animal, and their inflation probably occurs under the same circumstances that the wattles of male gallinaceous birds swell up, namely, when engaged in courting the females. Other remarkable conditions in which these Bats appear to differ from all other species, as in the peculiar structure of the hyoid bones and larynx, may be found described in detail in the writer s paper in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for June 1881. These Bats appear to live principally on figs, the juicy FIG. C9. Head of Pteropus personatus. Proc. Zool. Soc., 1860. Gray, 409 contents of which their voluminous lips and capacious mouths enable them to swallow without loss. Pteropus, i, c {, pm f, m f, with forty-one species, includes more than half the Ptcropodidas. All arc of large; size, and the absence of a tail, the long pointed muzzle, and the woolly fur cover ing the neck render their recognition easy. They are the &quot;Flying Foxes&quot; of Europeans in India, and one of the species, Pt. edulis, in habiting Java, measures 5 feet across the fully extended wings, and is the largest known species of the order. The species resemble one another closely in dentition, and are main ly distinguished by the form of the ears and quality of the fur. Pt. scapulatus, from north-east Australia, approaches the species of the second section of the family, the Macroglossi, in the remarkable narrowness of its molars and premolars. The geographical range of the genus is very peculiar, extending from Madagascar and its islands through the Seychelles to India, Ceylon, Burmah, the Malay Archipelago, southern Japan, New Guinea, Australia, and* Polynesia (except the Sandwich Islands, Ellice s Group, Gilbert s Group, Tokelau, and the Low Archipelago). Of the islands inhabited some are very small and remote from any continent, such as Savage Island in the South Pacific, and Kodriguez in the Indian Ocean. Although two species inhabit the Comoro Islands, which are scarcely 200 miles from the African coast, not a single species is found in Africa ; yet in India, separated by thousands of miles of almost unbroken ocean, a species exceedingly closely allied to the common Madagascar&quot; Flying Fox&quot; isabundant. The Malay Archipelago and Australia are their headquarters, and in some places they occur in countless multitudes. Mr Macgillivray remarks of Pt. conspicillatus : &quot;On the wooded slope of a hill oh Fitzroy Island I one day fell in with this Bat in prodigious numbers, looking while flying in the bright sunshine (so unusual for a nocturnal animal) like a large flock of rooks. On close approach a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering was heard. Many of the branches were bending under their load of Bats, some in a state of inactivity, suspended by their hind claws, others scrambling along among the boughs, and taking to wing when disturbed.&quot; Cynonycteris, dentition as in Pteropus, but with a short tail, and the fur of the back of the neck not differing from that of the back, with nine species, extends into Africa, but has not been recorded from Australia or Polynesia ; otherwise its distribution accords with that of Pteropus. C. pegyptiaca inhabits the chambers of the Great Pyramid and other deserted buildings iu Egypt, and is probably the species so generally figured in Egyptian frescos. Boncia, with one species, B. lidens, from Borneo, differs from Cynonycteris in having two upper incisors only. Cynopterus, i f or f, c -f, pm f, m f, muzzle shorter and grooved like Pteropus in front, tail and fur as in Cynonycteris, with seven species, is almost limited to the Oriental region. C. marg-inatus is very common in India, and extremely destructive to ripe fruit of every description. To a specimen of this Bat obtained by the writer at Calcutta uninjured was given a ripe banana, which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly 2 ounces. The 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, 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 ap parently unaltered, eat ing being, as it were, performed only for the pleasure of eating. FIG. 70. Head of llarpyia major. Zool. Soc., 1877. Dobson, Proc. TT * 1 1 &IJVL. AJl/C.. (-&amp;gt; * Harpyia, %, c , . facial bones much elevated above the margin of the jaw, nostrils tubular, body and limbs as in Cynopterus, includes two spocies
 * mf, m |, premaxillary bones well-developed and unitsd in front,