VAMPIRE BAT— DITMARS AND GREENHALL 28l 



and here the defibrinated blood was placed on ice, while the bat was 

 domiciled in the garage. That night some of the blood was measured 

 out in a flat dish. The amount would have filled a fair-sized wine- 

 glass. The bat hung head downward from the top of its cage when the 

 dish was placed inside and would not come down to drink while we 

 were there. Early the next morning we inspected the cage and found 

 the dish nearly empty. 



That routine never varied during the 10 days' voyage to New York, 

 with stops at Colombian ports. We never saw the bat drink the blood, 

 but in the quiet of the night she took her meal. At the Park the sen- 

 ior author decided to keep the vampire in the reptile house where the 

 temperature was automatically maintained and the atmosphere was 

 damp, like a gi-eenhouse. In roomy quarters she quicklj^ settled down. 

 Blood was defibrinated in the Park's research laboratory and the dish 

 was never placed in the cage until dark. For several weeks, however, 

 despite cautious inspections with a flashlight, no observations of her 

 visits to the dish could be made, although at some time during the 

 night the blood was consumed. 



At last the vampire became tame enough to show a lively interest 

 when the dish was placed in the cage. She would crawl down the mesh 

 side a few steps, peer at the dish, then creep back to her favorite nook 

 in a corner, where she would hang head downward, by one leg. Each 

 night she came further down and wandered along the sides of the cage 

 before retreating. Her deliberate motions were surprising: A slow 

 stalk, head downward, and a retreat equally deliberate. Her subse- 

 quent actions added much to information gleaned from the history of 

 the species. 



When the blood had been set in the cage, the observer took his stand 

 in what developed into a series of nightly vigils. Finally there came a 

 night when the bat descended the side of the cage with her usual 

 deliberation. Reaching the bottom, she started across the floor with 

 wings so compactly held that they looked like slender forelimbs of a 

 4-footed animal. Her rear limbs were directed downward. In this 

 way her body was reared a full two inches from the floor. She looked 

 like a big spider and her slow gait increased that effect. Her long 

 thumbs were directed forward and outward, serving as feet. Anyone 

 not knowing what she was would have been unlikely to suspect her of 

 being a bat. In this trip to the dish it appeared that an unpublished 

 habit of the vampire had been observed, and this, possibly, was the 

 method the bat used for prowling over a sleeping victim in seeking a 

 spot to use the highly perfected teeth in starting a floAv of blood. 



But other revelations were in store. Bending over the dish, the 

 bat darted her tongue into the sanguineous meal. Her lips were 

 never near the blood. The tongue was relatively long. It moved 



