CARNARIA. 



n 



an organ of suction ; and their lips also have tubercles symmetrically arranged. They are American 

 animals, which run along the ground with more facility than the other Bats, and have a habit of 

 sucking the blood of animals. 



I. Tailless Phyllostomes (Vampyrus, Spix). 



The Vampyre [of authors] (I'esp. spectrum, Lin.) — (fig. 

 12.) This animal is reddish-brown, and as large as a 

 Magpie. It has been accused of causing the death of 

 men and animals by sucking their blood ; but the truth 

 appears to be, that it inflicts only very small wounds, 

 which may sometimes prove dangerous from the effects of 

 the climate. [There are several others, certain of which 

 compose the divisions Madatacus and Arctibeus, Leach, 

 Lophostoma, Orb., (which is very like a Desmodut ex- 

 ternally,) Dipln/lla, Spix, and Carollia, Gray,— founded on 

 trivial modifications of the form of the nose-leaf, tragus, 

 and interfemoral membrane.] 



2. Phyllostomes with the tail enveloped in the interfe- 

 moral membrane. 



The Javelin Ph. (Vcsp. hastatm, Lin.)— The leaf shaped 

 like the head of a javelin, with its edges entire. [Also 

 various others, some of which constitute Macrophyllum and 

 Brachyphylla, Gray.] 



3. Phyllostomes with the tail free above tl»6 membrane. 

 Ph. crenulatum, Geof. — The leaf indented on the side. 



M. Geoffroy distinguishes from the Phyllostomes 

 those species which have a narrow extensile tongue, 

 furnished with papillae resembling hairs. He de- 

 signates them Glossophagues (Glossophaga). All 

 the species are likewise from America. [These also 

 have been subdivided, according to the presence or 

 absence of a short tail, and other frivolous characters 

 into Phyllophora and Anoura, Gray, Monophyllus, 

 Leach, and Glossophaga, as restricted. Spix applies to 

 one of them (Gl. amplexicaudata, Phyllophora of 

 Gray) the term Sanguisuga crudelissima, — " a very 

 cruel blood-sucker." According to Mr. Bell, the tongue of Phyllostoma, has "a number of wart-like 

 elevations, so arranged as to form a complete circidar suctorial disc, when they are brought into con- 

 tact at their sides, which is done by means of a set of muscular fibres, having a tendon attached to 

 each of the warts." The teeth of these animals, however, are decidedly ill-adapted for blood-letting. 



Fig 12.— Vanpyrus spectrum. 



The True Vampyres (Desmodus, Pr. Max., Edostoma, Orb., Stenoderma ?, Geof.) 

 This extraordinary genus has two immense, projecting, approximate upper incisors, and similar 

 lancet-shaped superior canines, all of which are excessively sharp-pointed, and amaged to inflict a 



triple puncture, like that of a Leech ; four bilobate inferior 



incisors, the innermost separated by a wide interval; the 



"%£is\ ] \- /*~&\ ' *. •• \ lower canines small and nol compressed: there are no true 



\ ' — "Wd^ ^M molars, but two false ones on the upper jaw, and three on 



the lower, of a peculiar form, apparently unfitted for mas- 

 tication (fig. 13). The intestine is shorter than in any 



other known animal; as blood, which probably Constitute! 

 their sole food, is so readily assimilated.* They have the 

 general characters of the Phyllostomes exl mally, a small 

 biiiil membrane on the nose, no tail or calcaneum, and the 

 interfemoral membrane but little developed. Are also in 

 habitants of South America. 



1 in. 13.— Trrih of Dcimodui 



• In I'rtprrtilu noctula, the intr.tine Is only twice the length of nr xdl •limwl itnlfht to the anus. It xuulil t>r Intcreiting to <do« 



tlu- buily, while iii Vtrr«put it ii full .even timet. In DeimoJui, it the fir. t or milk teeth of Delmodul. 



