266 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



of eighty species, which belong to this family, the two 

 most remarkable are the purely blood-sucking forms Des- 

 modus and Diphylla, which present an extraordinary 

 modification of their digestive organs, specially adapting 

 them for a diet of blood. These little animals, in fact, are 

 those which have given such a bad reputation to the whole 

 family of Vampires, though it was formerly supposed that 

 the Vampirus spectrum, and other larger forms of tropical 

 America, were likewise sanguinivorous in their habits. But 

 this large Bat is now known, like many other represen- 

 tatives of the same family, to subsist mainly upon fruit, 

 whilst other Vampires feed on a mixed diet of fruit and 

 insects, or on insects only ; and others again of the larger 

 forms are said to prey chiefly upon the smaller members 

 of their own order. 



