File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18161535525).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: [1918 c1900-[1918]] (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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50 1 THE AMEUICAX MUSEUM JOUHXAL
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lu llu'se ))ats {Lavia /nuts aljuiis) the nasal appendages, together with the large ears and the supple wing membranes, are organs of such ex- traordinar.v sense of touch that, even if blinded, the bats would not be hampered in their preda- tory flights. By means of tliese sensory organs, they evidently are able to measure air waves, and thus are effectively warned from flying against obstacles. Tliis bat is far more diurnal than any other we saw, and the curious orange and yellowish green tints of the huge nose leaves and ears add much to its strange beauty. (Lo- cate the eyes and the picture will then take on llie ai>pearance of a face with great ears) Tlic trik-c ai:ainst any solid object un- !(•>> they arc t horoui>-hly exhausted. \\ hell (■ha>('d ill closed rooms, thev cMa|)cd hv nari-o\v slit- in windows and (|(i(ir- tiiroiiuh which it seemed I hey could liardly ci'awl. These re- niai'kahle ada|itations hut add inter- est to the fact that hats are the only niaiiimal^ on our |)lanct which have de- Ncloped the power of true flight. On account of this cU'ectiNc locomotion, zoiigeogr.ipher- e\cludc(| them from their c(inclu-i(ins, especially as certain >pecic- wrvc \}r\\rxo(] fo extcnd uni- hii'ndv o\ei- Mui-ope. .\sia, and Africa. (hielly (111 account of our long sojourn in the.-c regions, we were able to prove that, just as with birds of the forest and birds of the plains, about twenty- live In nils are endeinio to the rain for- i'>t ;ind about thirty to the open coun- ti'y. Iive otb(>rs may occuf everywhere i)ecau.se they follow closely in the wake . the AFalay llying-fo.v. which meas- iii'cs one foot in length and five feet across its fully expanded wings. On the other hand, the largest of African (hiroptera. th(^ hammer-headed bat (1/i/jisii/ntillius niDiisIrosiis), measures only ten and a (piarter inches in length and has a wing spread of three feet two inches. These are the strangest of all the hats and the males are abso- lutely unii|ue. not oidy among mammals but among all vertebrates, in one fea- ture at least. The larynx of adult males is almost completely ossified and so tremendously enlarged that it actu- ally fills two thirds of the entire body cavitv, crowdiuii' the heart and luniJ^s

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