The Big-eared Bat is a small species an inch and four-fifths long, with a tail nearly of equal length. It is clothed with a long, fine, and soft fur, the hairs of which are blackish at the base, with dusky-brown tips on the upper surface, and greyish tips below. This Bat is an inhabitant of the Southern Atlantic States of the Union.
Townsend’s Bat (Corynorhinus Townsendi) is a very similar animal, but is a little longer, and has the face larger and broader and the facial crests more prominent. Its ear and head are shown in the [annexed figures]. The fur is brown above, with the bases of the hairs only a little darker than the tips, lighter beneath, and slightly rusty towards the base. It inhabits the central parts of the United States (Missouri, Utah).
GEOFFROY’S NYCTOPHILE.[185]
The genus Nyctophilus includes a small number of Bats belonging to the Australian region, which, on account of their possession of a rudimentary nasal appendage, have usually been placed with the Megaderms or the Rhinolophidæ. But apart from the presence of the nose-leaf, which is of very simple structure, the characters of these Bats are in such close agreement with those of the Vespertilionidæ, that there seems to be no doubt that this is their true position. They appear to be most nearly related to Plecotus.
The nasal appendages are very simple, consisting of a transverse front piece placed immediately above the nostrils, and having its upper margin straight, and a second portion, also transverse, placed at a greater distance from the first than the latter from the nostrils, and thickly clothed with short bristly hairs. The ears are large, ovoid, united at their bases by a membrane which runs across the top of the head, and furnished with a short broad tragus. The dentition differs from that of the allied genera. There are two separated incisors and only one pre-molar on each side in the upper jaw, and the lower jaw has only two pre-molars on each side. Thus the dental formula is—incisors, 1–1 6, canines, 1–1 1–1, pre-molars, 1–1 2–2, molars, 3–3 3–3.
GEOFFROY’S NYCTOPHILE. (From Gould’s “Mammals of Australia.”)
Geoffroy’s Nyctophile, which appears to be one of the commonest species, as also the one first described, is a small Bat, the head and body measuring rather more than two inches in length, and the tail more than one inch. The heel-spurs are half an inch long. The body is covered with long, thick, and soft fur, which is usually brown above and brownish-grey beneath, the hairs on both surfaces being black at the base, tipped above with olive-brown, and on the under surface with brownish-white. The membranes are dark brown. The species is an inhabitant of Western Australia, where it is abundant. These Bats are sometimes found in great numbers in the hollow spouts of the gum-trees, from which they emerge in the evening to flit around the shrubs and smaller trees in search of insects.
Three other species of this genus are known, one of which, although originally described as from Timor, and named N. timoriensis, is only known to occur in Western Australia; another is from New South Wales, and the third from Van Diemen’s Land.