rfemoral membrane, or appears on its upper surface; the stomach,
except in the blood-sucking group, is simple; and the spigelian lobe
of the liver large, and the caudate generally small.

The bats included in this suborder are so numerous in genera (to say
nothing of species) that only some of the more important types can be
mentioned.

Brief references have already been made to the manner in which in many
or most of these bats the tail aids in the capture of prey. From the
observations of C. Oldham, it appears that these bats, when walking,
carry the tail downwards and forwards, so that the membrane connecting
this organ with the hind-legs forms a kind of pouch or bag. If a large
insect be encountered the bat seizes it with a snatch, and slightly
spreading its folded wings and pressing them on the ground in order to
steady itself, brings its feet forwards so as to increase the capacity
of the tail-pouch, into which, by bending its neck and thrusting its
head beneath the body, it pushes the insect. Although the latter,
especially if large, will often struggle violently, when once in the
pouch it but rarely escapes, from which it is subsequently extracted
and devoured. It is assumed that the same method of capture is
employed when on the wing; and a naturalist who has observed the
long-eared bat picking moths off willows states that the bat always
hovers when taking off the moth, and bends up the tail so as to form a
receptacle for the insect as it drops.

In the _Rhinolophidae_, Horse-shoe and Leaf-nosed bats of the Old
World, the nose-leaf is developed and surrounds the nasal apertures,
which are situated in a depression on the upper surface of the muzzle
so as to look upwards; the ears are large and generally separate,
without trace of a tragus or earlet; the premaxillae are rudimentary,
suspended from the nasal cartilages, and support a single pair of
small incisors; the molars have acute W-shaped cusps; the skull is
large, and the nasal bones which support the nose-leaf much expanded
vertically and laterally. In females a pair of teat-like appendages
are found in front of the pubis; and the long tail extends to the
margin of the interfemoral membrane. The middle finger has two
phalanges, but the index is rudimentary. The fibula is rudimentary.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Head of Mitred Horseshoe Bat (_Rhinolophus
mitratus_). From Dobson.]

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