38 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a pin could 

 scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently 

 not painful; yet through this orifice he continues to suck the 

 blood until he is obliged to disgorge. Cattle they generally 

 bite in the ear, but always in places where the blood flows 

 spontaneously." 



Megadenna The Vampire Bat of South America has long 

 Lyra. been credited with sanguinivorous habits, and 

 until recently was supposed to be the only bat having such 

 propensities. Mr. Edward Blyth has, however, shown that 

 the Megaderma Lyra of Asia will sometimes prey upon the 

 smaller species of bat with which it comes in contact. Mr. 

 Biyth, one evening, observed a rather large bat of this species 

 enter an outhouse, whereupon he procured a light, closed 

 the door to prevent escape and then proceeded to catch 

 the intruder. In the chase the bat dropped what Mr. Blyth 

 at first took to be a young one, but which proved to be 

 a small Vespertilio Bat, "feeble from loss of blood, which 

 it was evident the Megaderma had been sucking from a 

 large, and still bleeding, wound under and behind the ear." 

 As the Megaderma had not alighted while in the outhouse, 

 Mr. Blyth concluded "that it sucked the vital current from 

 its victim as it flew, having probably seized it on the wing, 

 and that it was seeking a quiet nook where it might devour 

 the body at leisure." Having caught the Megaderma Mr. 

 Blyth kept both specimens until the next day, and having 

 examined each separately put them both into a cage, where- 

 upon the Megaderma attacked the smaller bat "with the 

 ferocity of a tiger" ; finding it impossible to escape the cage 

 " it hung by the hind legs to one side of its prison, and after 

 sucking the victim till no more blood was left commenced 

 devouring it, and soon left nothing but the head and some 

 portions of the limbs." " The voidings observed shortly 

 afterwards in its cage," says Mr. Blyth, "resembled clotted 

 blood, which will explain the statement of Steadman and 



