12 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



these forms one may also reckon a few which 

 habitually subsist on fluid nutriment, and indeed are 

 so specially adapted for this diet that they starve if 

 they cannot obtain it. Truth is stranger than 

 fiction ; such remarkable beings are found even 

 amongst the mammalia. They live entirely on fresh- 

 drawn blood, and are known as vampire bats. Two 

 species of true vampire are known: the vampire 

 par excellence being the larger of the two and 

 inhabiting Central and part of South America. 



The vampire bat (Desmodtis rufus) measures but 

 three inches in length (head and body) and two and 

 a half in length of forearm : it is thus by no means 

 the terrible monster which one would have supposed, 

 beinor but little laroer than the noctule bat of the 



o o 



British Islands. The muzzle is short, conical, and 

 surmounted by a small leaf of specialised skin. The 

 fur of the back is thick and somewhat long. The 

 wings are quite transparent anteriorly, more opaque 

 in their posterior two-thirds. A well-developed 

 opaque patagium unites the forearm with the 

 shoulder. There is no tail and no spur on the ankle 

 to support the interfemoral membrane, which is very 

 short. The colour of this bat is reddish brown 

 (often tinged with ashy grey) above, yellowish brown 

 below; it is readily distinguished from its smaller 

 congener by its superior size and by the total 

 absence of the ankle-spur. Thus the desmodus is 

 not at all remarkable in appearance; many harmless 



