26 NATURAL HISTORY. 



hands are developed into wings. If the fingers of a man 

 were to be drawn out like wire to about four feet in length, a 

 thin membrane to extend from finger to finger, arid another 

 membrane to fall from the little finger to the ancles, he would 

 make a very tolerable Bat. 



The usual food of Bats is insects, which" they mostly capture 

 on the wing, but some, as the. Vampires, suck blood from 

 other animals, and a few, as the Kalongo, or Flying Fox, live 

 upon fruits, and so devour the mangoes, that the natives are 

 forced to cover them with bamboo baskets to preserve them 

 from- the ravages of these animals, who would soon strip the 

 fruit-trees without these precautions. Even the cocoa nut is 

 not secure from their depredations. 



The membrane of the Bat's wing is plentifully supplied 

 with nerves, and is extremely sensitive, almost appearing to 

 supply a sense independent of sight. Spallanzani cruelly 

 deprived several Bats of their eyes, and then let them fly loose 

 in his room, across which he had stretched strings in various 

 places. The unfortunate Bats, however, did not strike against 

 the strings or any other obstacles, but threaded their way 

 among them with a degree of accuracy perfectly wonderful. 

 Many Bats possess a similar membrane on the nose, which is 

 apparently used for the same purpose. 



There are five tribes, or sub-families, of Bats, according to 

 Gray, each tribe including many genera. The British Museum 

 possesses seventy-seven genera. 



The Vampire Bat is a native of South America, where it is 

 very common, and held in some dread. It lives on the blood 

 of animals, and sucks usually while its victim sleeps. The 

 extremities where the blood flows freely, as the toe of a man, 

 the ears of a horse, or the combs and wattles of fowls, are its 

 favourite spots. When it has selected a subject, on which it 

 intends to feed, it watches until the animal is fairly asleep. 

 It then carefully fans its victim with its wings while it bites 

 a little hole in the ear or shoulder, and through this small 

 aperture, into which a pin's head would scarcely pass, it con- 

 trives to abstract sufficient blood to make a very ample rrreal. 

 The wound is so small, and the Bat manages so adroitly, that 

 the victim does not discover that anything has happened until 

 the morning, when a pool of blood betrays the visit of the 



