. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. countrv abounds, and THE GKEAT EAEE-LirPED In Seba'j well-known illustrated book on Natural History a peculiar species of Bat is described and figured under the name of " Vespert'dio cato similis ; It may be doubtful whether iiny of our domestic Grimalkins would be much flattered by the likeness thus briefly indicated (see figure), but there can be no doubt that the animal in question was a Bat, and as such it duly appears in the earlier editions of the " Systema Naturre " of Linnieus. By a curious misa
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. countrv abounds, and THE GKEAT EAEE-LirPED In Seba'j well-known illustrated book on Natural History a peculiar species of Bat is described and figured under the name of " Vespert'dio cato similis ; It may be doubtful whether iiny of our domestic Grimalkins would be much flattered by the likeness thus briefly indicated (see figure), but there can be no doubt that the animal in question was a Bat, and as such it duly appears in the earlier editions of the " Systema Naturre " of Linnieus. By a curious misapplication of the very sound principle of not being guided exclusively by external characters, the great Swedish naturalist was led in the last edition of his work (in which he founded the genus Noctilio) to refer the animal to the Rodents, on the groitnd of the apparent presence of only two incisors in each jaw. A glance at the dentition of a Noctilio will at once show how LiuJiKus was misled, and at the same time that it has all the dental characters of a Bat. In the upjier jav/ there ai-e four incisor teeth, the two middle ones approximated and considerably larger than the lateral ones, which are placed quite behind them, leaving a small ojien space between the incisoi-s and the larger canines, behind which comes a series of four molars showing the characteristic W-sJiaped cusps very distinctly. In the lower jaw there are only two small notched incisors, followed immediately by the powerful canines, behind which is a series of five molars, the first very small, the second larger, but simple and pyramidal, and the remainder with distinct cusps and ridges. The ears in the Bats of this genus are rather large, and furnished with a small tragus, the outer margin of which is notched. The outer margin of the ear forms a rounded lobe upon the cheek, and is then continued to the angle of the mouth. The upper lip is widely cleft, forming a broad margined running up to the nostrils, wh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
