THE BLOOD-SUCKING VAMPIRES 307 



hollow curve ; and there is no trace of a tail. Two of the best known species are 

 Artibeus planirostris and A. perspillatus, the former of which was regarded by 

 Charles Waterton as the veritable blook-sucking vampire. 

 The latter is abundant in the caves of Jamaica, and feeds 

 on bread-nut, mangoes, and other fruit ; it measures three 

 and one half inches in length, and, with its allies, may be 

 considered in South America to take the place of the fruit- 

 bats of the Old World. These bats fly early in the even- 

 ing, and are in the habit of reposing during the day in 

 places exposed to a considerable amount of light, having 

 been observed beneath the eaves of a house in Demerara HEAD OF CENTURION BAT. 



ii .LI e ^1 Ai - i e- 11 ^1 T (From Dobson.) 



with the rays of the setting sun shining full on them. In 



other places they have been found roosting in large clusters beneath the fronds of 

 the cocoa palm. Of another Jamaica species (Stenoderma achradophilum) Mr. P. 

 H. Gosse remarks that it ' ' feeds on the fruit of the naseberry. About a quarter of 

 an hour ofter the sun has set, and while the sky is still glowing with effulgent 

 clouds, these bats begin to fly round the tree. . . . On picking up a fruit you 

 find that it has been just bitten and nibbled in a rugged manner. Fragments of 

 naseberry of considerable size, partly eaten by a bat, are frequently found at the dis- 

 tance of half a mile from the nearest naseberry tree." The centurion bat (Centurio 

 senex}, of which the head is represented in the accompanying illustration, differs 

 from all the members of this group by the absence of a distinct nose-leaf. Owing 

 to the remarkable foldings of the skin, the face of this bat presents a most gro- 

 tesque appearance. 



THE BLOOD-SUCKING VAMPIRES 

 Genera Desmodus and Diphylla 



The two species of blood-sucking vampires, each the solitary representative of 

 a distinct genus, with which we close our account not only of the vampires, but also 

 of bats generally, present the following distinctive characteristics : 



Firstly, they may be recognized by their very short and conical muzzles, 

 surmounted by a small though distinct nose-leaf ; as well as by the shortness of 

 the membrane between the hind legs, and by the total absence of a tail. Secondly, 

 they are characterized by the fewness and peculiar structure of their teeth ; of which 

 the total number is only twenty in one species, and twenty-four in the other. In 

 the former there are no molar teeth, although a small rudimentary one is present on 

 each side of the jaws of the latter. In the upper jaw there is a single pair of very 

 broad-crowned incisors, which fill up the whole of the space between the tusks or 

 canines, and have keen and sharp-cutting edges like chisels. The premolar teeth, 

 of which there are two pairs in the upper and three in the lower jaw, have likewise 

 trenchant cutting edges working against one another, and being quite unlike those 

 of any other bat. When we add to these characteristics the sharp tusks with 

 which each jaw is provided, it will be evident that the teeth of the blood-sucking 



