J3ATS. CHIROPTERA 183 



has smaller ears. It has been found in several 

 counties in England and in summer has been seen as 

 far north as Carlisle. From this and other records 

 observers consider that some bats are occasionally 

 summer migrants. 



The genus Vesper tilio^ which has six British 

 representatives, may be distinguished by the thin 

 and narrow ears which its members possess, also by 

 the thin and hairy muzzle. The nostrils are simple 

 and the aperture is crescentic. 



Although specialists have of late given more 

 attention to English bats, there is very little common 

 knowledge of them. Most people are uncertain 

 whether they be mouse, bird or reptile, and pre- 

 judice, which has proclaimed them unlucky and 

 uncanny, still prevails, and prevents the greater 

 number of us from realising the beauty and great 

 interest which are attached to these little animals — 

 the only flying mammals. 



Thrilling travellers' tales Lave been told of the 

 blood-sucking vampires of South America, but they 

 were much exaggerated, and the innocent suffered 

 long for the guilty. Vampyrus spectrum is figured 

 in old books as the creature who sat upon the toes 

 of the unwary sleeper, cunningly fanning them softly 

 with his wings and thus luring their owner, in the 

 heat of a tropical night, into deeper slumber, that the 

 gruesome visitor might enjoy undisturbed his feast of 

 blood. But Vdmpyrns spectrum, though of terrifying 

 aspect, is not a blood-sucker at all. The real blood- 

 suckers belong to the genera Dermodus and Diphylla. 

 Dermodus rnfiis is the best known of these. He has 



