SNAKES AND BLOODSUCKERS 



were visible in the morning; and two vampires were shot and 

 brought to me whose stomachs still contained blood. 



As I have told in another chapter, I was always glad to see the 

 bats which came to my room to eat the cockroaches. They were 

 not, of course, so numerous as those which Bates saw at Para, 

 where the swarms of bats literally filled the air of his room and ex- 

 tinguished the lamps. At night the traveller was awakened by the 

 bats that were creeping all over his body, filling his hammock; he 

 caught as many as he could, and flung them against the wall; 

 nevertheless, in the morning he found a bite on his hip. 



Other travellers too have told of bites on the throat, the breast, 

 the hips, or the toes. But these were always small and benign wounds, 

 and according to those best entitled to judge, the amount of blood 

 subtracted from horses and other domestic animals is not such as 

 to injure their health. According to the most recent information, 

 the bats which suck blood — that is, the Leaf-nosed Bats — are only 

 occasional bloodsuckers, their usual diet consisting of insects and 

 fruits. There are ninety species of bats in Brazil, which, by the exter- 

 mination of mosquitoes, the fertilization of certain flowers which have 

 adapted themselves to their visits, and the propagation of fruit-trees, 

 whose seeds they sow after eating their fruit, make themselves so 

 useful that one must not allow oneself to be prejudiced against them 

 by the few occasional bloodsuckers among them. 



