. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATUIiAL This extraoi-clinary little creature, FAMILY III.—NYCTERID^. The development of peciiliar nixsal appendages for which the RhiaolopJiiJa' are remarkable is still more striking in some species of another family, the membei-s of which were formerly included in the preceding. In these Bate (the Nycterklce of Mr. Dobson) the ears are enormously developed, mem- branous, and united either by a poition of their inner margins, or by a transverse band of membrane, the tragus or eurlet is greatly de- veloped, and the middle finger
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATUIiAL This extraoi-clinary little creature, FAMILY III.—NYCTERID^. The development of peciiliar nixsal appendages for which the RhiaolopJiiJa' are remarkable is still more striking in some species of another family, the membei-s of which were formerly included in the preceding. In these Bate (the Nycterklce of Mr. Dobson) the ears are enormously developed, mem- branous, and united either by a poition of their inner margins, or by a transverse band of membrane, the tragus or eurlet is greatly de- veloped, and the middle finger contains two phalanges.* The«species inliabit the wanner jiarts of the Old World. THE LYRE The extraordinary development of the ears and of the mem- branous appendages of the nose is greatest in the species of this genus, which has in consequence been denominated Megaderma, two of which inhabit tropical Asia, whilst two occur only in the warmer parts of Africa. Of all the species the most abundant and best known is the Lyre Bat {Meyciderma lyra, see figure), which is found with but \ IE LVKE i!AT. little variation in its characters throughout continental India, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin, and also in the adjacent island of Ceylon, v^hich measures only about three and a half inches in length, and is of a slaty blue colour, paler beneath, has its ears considerably longer than its head, and imited for nearly half the length of their inner margins, and the earlets (tragi) very long, divided at the end into two parts, one of which, the posterior, is pointed, and a good deal longer than the other, which is i-ounded off at the end. The ears are, in fact, about half the length of the head and bod\ The nos&- leaf starts from a nearly circular base, lying hoi-izontally upon the muzzle and uses like a soit of strap more than half an inch long, the front surface of which lias a projecting iidgc lunning u]) it'^ middle, and corresponding to a deep groove on the posterior sur
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
