THE VAMPIRE BAT 1 5 



gullet is of SO small a bore (barely admitting a stout 

 bristle) that it would probably be unable to swallow 

 even minute clots. The stomach moreover is of the 

 simplest construction; instead of being subglobular 

 as in ordinary bats it is long and narrow, like a loop 

 of the intestine with which it is directly continuous. 

 A specimen of the true vampire, beautifully dissected 

 to show these details, is now preserved in the Royal 

 Colleo-e of Suro^eons' Museum. 



The vampire bat became known to Europeans 

 unpleasantly soon after the conquest of South 

 America. Peter Martyr mentions their attacks on 

 men and cattle in the Isthmus of Darien. Condamine 

 in the eighteenth century noted their destructiveness, 

 which entirely frustrated the efforts of the mission- 

 aries to introduce cattle amongst the natives ; while 

 according to Sir R. Schomburgh, the natives of 

 Wicki were unable to keep fowls, which the bats 

 destroyed by attacking their combs. 



Especially abundant in the valley of the Amazon, 

 the vampire spends the daytime in holes and hollows 

 of trees, issuing forth at twilight to search for victims.^ 

 So plentiful are (or were) these bloodsuckers that 

 they constitute, as in the days of Condamine, a real 



1 Bats when han<,ang suspended in the daytime are very interestinf; to 

 ■watch. Some African fruit bats ( Cyonycteris collaris), recently studied 

 by the writer, \i\uv^ in a chister of six from the roof of their cage, 

 swayinj,' j^ently like a Inmdle of withered leaves, with occasional move- 

 ments of heads and ears. Each individual would from time to time 

 stretch a wing, shaking it like a young bird with a rapid shivering move- 

 ment. They cleaned tlieir wings l)y passing the edges through their 

 jaws and would also lick each other's fur. 



