280 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



on flashing our lamps against the wall, saw several bats run like 

 rodents along the vertical surface, then dart into crevices. We inmie- 

 diately identified them as vampires, but all escaped. 



With lights turned out we waited a half hour, but the bats did not 

 reappear. We explored another gallery and found a spot where a 

 slender man might squeeze through. We were too fatigued to con- 

 tinue, however. 



The only other passage sheered off at a ledge beneath which ran a 

 channel of water, from wall to wall, which looked as if it were quite 

 deep. There the day's reconnoiter ended. 



The following morning we returned to the cave where the vampires 

 had been seen and with much caution descended to the widened area, 

 keeping the lights out and feeling our way. Ready with some small 

 nets we had prepared the previous evening, we flashed the lights on 

 the wall where the bats had been seen, but no vampires were anywhere 

 in sight. 



We reasoned that the vampires had retreated into the recesses of 

 the tunnel with the deep water, or into the narrow shaft where only a 

 slender man could get through. Greenhall worked into this small, 

 horizontal shaft and saw several vampires in a widened space ahead. 

 He captured two and the others made their way into the tunnel with 

 the deep water, which connected with a passage ahead. 



Of the two vampires captured, one soon died. It was half grown 

 and possibly had been injured in the net. The other, an adult female, 

 lived for approximately 4 months after capture and, slightly more 

 than 3 months after being caught, gave birth to a single vigorous in- 

 fant. While as yet we do not know the period of gestation, the length 

 of time from capture of the mother to birth of the young shows a 

 surprisingly long period of pregnancy for such a small mammal. 



After obtaining the female vampire, we left for the Atlantic side 

 of the Canal Zone. Dr. Clark provided two quarts of defibrinated 

 blood, fresh from the automatic refrigerator of his laboratory, but 

 from that moment until we reached New York the vampire was a 

 problem. We were naturally very keen to get it back alive. We 

 were not worried about the 18 big carnivorous bats ; they were feed- 

 ing ravenously and fresh meat could be readily obtained. With an 

 assortment of crates containing reptiles and amphibians, and cases of 

 preserved specimens for the museums, we boarded a train for Colon. 

 The defibrinated blood was in a package beside us, and the cage con- 

 taining the vampire was swathed in black cloth. Dr. Clark had 

 cautioned us to get the blood on ice again as soon as possible. 



On the Atlantic side it was necessary for the senior author to stop 

 2 days at the Navy Submarine Base at Coco Solo to deliver several 

 lectures. The commanding officer invited us to stay at his residence 



