ZOOLOGICAL
14
PTER0P0DID2E (Flying Foxes or Fruit-Bats; 136 Species).
Plate 3, Map vi.
The Fruit-Pats are limited in their distribution to the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, only five species being found in the Palfe-arctic region (in Egypt, Syria and Arabia). In Australia 36 species are met with, in the Oriental region 41, and in the Ethiopian 35. The distribution of the typical genus Pteropus is particularly interesting. Of the 61 known species five occur in Madagascar and the adjacent islands, the rest being essentially Oriental and Australian forms. Moreover, one or two of these Mascarene representatives are only distinguished by very critical characters from the common Indian species. This genus is totally absent from the African continent, although representatives are found in the Comoro Islands, only a couple of hundred miles distant, and even in the island of Pemba, only 37-Jr miles from the mainland. The evidence provided by this peculiar distribution is used, along with that of other groups of animals, as a basis for the theory that there was formerly a land-connection between India and the islands of the Malagasy sub-region.
To this family belong the three very remarkable species of Tube-nosed Bats (Gelasinus) found in North Australia, Celebes, New Guinea and the neighbouring islands.
Ihe Fruit-Bats are so distinct in structure and habits from all other Chiroptera that they have been placed in a separate Sub-Order bearing the name of Megachiroptera, or Large Bats. They are purely fruit-eating creatures and are much the largest of the Bat tribe, hence the name “Flying Foxes.”
OLDER INSECTIVORA (Insectivores; 406 Species).
The members of this Order are comparatively small animals—the largest not exceeding our common Babbit in size—and in a general sense widely distributed. Representatives are found in all the temperate and tropical parts of the world, with the exception of Australia, New Zealand and the Papuan region. In South America, however, only three species occur, which belong to a typically North American genus of Shrews (Blarina), and these only inhabit that portion of South America which lies north of the Equator. In the West Indies, in Cuba and Hayti, only two species of Insectivores are found, which belong to the peculiar family Solenodontidse, whose nearest living allies are to be found far away in Madagascar as another peculiar family, the Tenrecs or Centetidse.
TALPIDA¡ (Moles, Mole-Shrews and Desmans; 31 Species).
Plate 4, Map i.
The members of this family are entirely confined to the Northern Hemisphere, where they are specially characteristic of the temperate regions, 12 being New World species and 19 being widely distributed over Europe and Asia. Only five species inhabit the Oriental region, all the other Old World representatives being essentially Pahearctic in their distribution. Of the European members of this family the Desmans (Myogale) are most interesting from a distributional point of view. Only two species now exist, one of which is confined to the streams of the Pyrenean region and Portugal, while the other is peculiar to the rivers and lakes of south-east Russia and Turkestan. They are both aquatic, and are characterised by not having their fore-limbs modified for digging-purposes, as in the true Moles. In former times they were more widely distributed in Europe, where their fossil forms are found in the Middle and Lower Miocene. The Russian species is represented by remains found in the forest-bed on the east coast of England.
While the true Moles (Talpa) and the Mole-Shrews (Urotrichus) are remarkable for their fossorial habits, the single species forming the genus Uropsilus, a creature confined to Tibet and Western China, is cursorial. The Web-footed Moles (Scalops), the Hairy-tailed Moles (Scapanus) and the Star-nosed Mole (Condylura) are confined to North America. The Web-footed Moles are strictly fossorial in their habits and are not swimming animals, as the peculiar structure of their hind feet was formerly thought to imply.
Several fossil species of Moles are known, from the Tertiary beds of Europe and North America.
CHRYS0CHL0RID7E (Golden or Cape Moles; 16 Species).
Plate 4, Map i.
The Golden Moles, so called from the fact that their fur glistens with various metallic tints, are entirely restricted to Africa south of the Equator. They feed mainly upon earth-worms, and live in tunnels which are bored so near the surface of the ground that the earth is raised, enabling the course of the tunnel to be easily traced.
CENTETILA¡ (Tenrecs; 18 Species). Plate 4, Map ii.
The Centetidse. are curious hedgehog-like animals, entirely confined to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, but also introduced into Bourbon and Mauritius. The best-known species (Centetes ecauaatus) is a strictly nocturnal animal, found principally in the mountains, living upon worms and insects, and hibernating in the cool season. It is, moreover, the largest representative of the order Insectívora, attaining as it does a length of some sixteen inches.
S0LEN0D0NTIDA1 (Solenodons; 2 Species). Plate 4, Map ii.
The two species of this family are confined to the islands of Hayti and Cuba respectively. It is curious that they should be the nearest relatives of the previous family, and yet be so far removed from them geographically.
feeds upon the cane, but also upon the wood-boring larvae affecting it. These it draws from their holes by the aid of its extremely slender third finger, which is specially adapted for the purpose.
ORDER CHIROPTERA (Bats; 858 Species).
The animals comprised in this Order are the only Mammals which are capable of true flight, and, as might be expected from the possession of such an effective method of locomotion, they are extremely widely distributed, being found in all parts of the world—many oceanic islands included—from the Arctic circle southwards. Moreover, in some islands (including New Zealand), they are the only indigenous Mammals. Six families of Bats are here recognised, one of which (Pteropodidse) contains purely fruit-eating species and is sometimes regarded as forming a Sub-Order in itself, under the name of Megachiroptera, the remaining five being mainly insectivorous and constituting the Sub-Order Microchiroptera.
PHYLL0ST0MATID2E (Vampire-Bats; 144 Species).
Plate 3, Map iv.
The members of this family are confined to the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. Only three species are found in North America, and these only in Texas, California and Florida. On the other hand, they are well represented in the West Indies and Central America. Southwards very few (about three) species extend beyond the tropic ; hence the metropolis of this important group appears to be the great Amazonian forest region. A single fossil Vampire-Bat has been described, from the Eocene of Southern France, and if such a species is correctly placed, this fact indicates a much wider distribution of the family in past ages.
The Phyllostomatidse are restricted to forests, and their food is remarkably varied in its nature, some species subsisting entirely on fruit, others both on fruit and insects. Two species are purely blood-suckers, and these have an enormous geographical range, occurring from Central America to southern Brazil and Chili.
RHIN0L0PHID7E (Horseshoe and Leaf-nosed Bats; 124 Species).
Plate 3, Map iv.
In contradistinction to the last family, the Rhinolophidse are exclusively Old World inhabitants, but some of them have a remarkably wide distribution. The Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum), for example, is found throughout; southern and central Europe, including the southern half of England, and in most of Africa, while in Asia it ranges from the Himalayas to Japan. The family is represented in all the temperate and tropical parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, with the exception of New Zealand and the greater part of Polynesia. The principal genera are Rhinolophus, the Horseshoe Bats, with 75 species, and Hipposiderus, the Leaf-nosed Bats, with 40.
The Eocene and Miocene beds of Europe have yielded the remains of about 20 extinct species.
N0CTILI0NID1E (Free-tailed Bats; 139 Species).
Plate 3, Map v.
The members of this family are widely distributed over the warmer regions of the whole world, but are most abundant in the equatorial zone. Only a single species occurs in Europe (Nyctinomus tseniotis), and this ranges from Portugal to Switzerland, Italy and Greece. The principal genera are Taphozous, with 14 species known as Tomb-Bats, widely diffused over the Ethiopian, Oriental and Australian regions; Molossus (Mastiff-Bats), with 25 species, all American, and ranging from Southern California to the Argentine Republic; and Nyctinomus, with 51 species, which are scattered over the whole area covered by the family. The New Zealand representative known as Mystctcops tuberculctta is one of the two species of Bat inhabiting that country.
NYCTERIDfE (False Vampire-Bats; 16 Species).
Plate 3, Map v.
The Nycteridse are met with only in the warmer regions of the Eastern Hemisphere and are especially characteristic of the Ethiopian region. Ten species occur in Africa, three of which are wide-ranging, but only one crossing the Tropic of Cancer to occur in Egypt. One is Indian, another Australian, while the remaining four range from Siam through the Malay Archipelago as far as Timor.
The False Vampires, like a few of the true ones, are sometimes addicted to blood-sucking. No fossil forms are known.
VESPERTILI0NID2E (Typical Bats; 299 Species).
Plate 3, Map vi.
In this, the largest family of Bats, are found such well-known British forms as the Long-eared and Daubenton’s Bats, the Pipistrelle, Noctule, and Serotine. The species are in general so wide-ranging that it would not serve any useful purpose to give statistics. The family is truly cosmopolitan, no sub-region of the whole world being entirely without representatives. Their range seems only to be regulated by the exigencies of food-supply, for in the New World they occur from Hudson’s Bay to the extreme point of South America, and in the Old World from the Arctic circle to Cape Colony and New Zealand.
Several fossil species of this family are known, most of which are from the Eocene and Miocene of France, and others from the Miocene of Germany and the Eocene and Miocene of North America.