Under this name Mr. Dobson describes a very remarkable species of this family in which the nasal appendages seem to attain the extreme of complexity (see [figure]). The ears also are of very peculiar construction. This is a small species, about two and a quarter inches long, and of a pale buff colour, specimens of which were obtained at Shiraz in Persia at an elevation of about 4,750 feet above the sea. Its nearest ally, curiously enough, is to be found, according to Mr. Dobson, in the Australian Orange Bat (Rhinonycteris aurantia).
HEAD OF THE PERSIAN TRIDENT BAT,
ENLARGED. (After Dobson.)
Frith’s Short-tailed Bat (Cœlops Frithii) is a still more remarkable species, single specimens of which have been obtained from the Sunderbunds and from Java. It is most nearly allied to the Phyllorhinæ, but has the horseshoe part of the nose-leaf composed of two notched pieces, the front lobes of which cover the base of two long hanging leaflets, the tail short, the interfemoral membrane deeply excavated, and the index finger unusually long, and composed chiefly of the metacarpal bone.
FAMILY III.—NYCTERIDÆ.
The development of peculiar nasal appendages for which the Rhinolophidæ are remarkable is still more striking in some species of another family, the members of which were formerly included in the preceding. In these Bats (the Nycteridæ of Mr. Dobson) the ears are enormously developed, membranous, and united either by a portion of their inner margins, or by a transverse band of membrane, the tragus or earlet is greatly developed, and the middle finger contains two phalanges.[176]
The species inhabit the warmer parts of the Old World.
THE LYRE BAT.[177]
