LEAF-NOSED BATS. 



109 



that in many parts of South America, where 

 vampires are so numerous, cattle could not 

 be kept at all if the food of those creatures 

 consisted solely of blood. Martin made some 

 decisive experiments in a house standing by 

 itself, where he kept in a well-closed room 

 various birds and mammals along with some 



vampire-bats. The window was latticed so 

 as to admit insects, and a bunch of bananas 

 hung from the ceiling. " Now as long as 

 the fruits lasted and insects had free access, 

 the vampires lived on this food. But when 

 the window -shutters were closed and the 

 admission of insects thus prevented, it was 



Fig. 44. The Vampire Bat (Phyllostoma spectrum}. 



always found on the following morning that 

 some birds lay on the floor deprived of their 

 blood, and dead. On the morning next after 

 the birds were devoured. Only after the 

 third or fourth night were traces of blood 

 seen on the mammals." From this it would 

 appear, therefore, that it is hunger that 

 makes the vampires bloodthirsty, We may, 

 however, point out this, that in this case, 

 as in the case of some other animals, it 

 may perhaps happen that man, for example, 

 is attacked in certain districts, but not in 

 others. 



The Horse-shoe Bats of the Old World, 



forming the genus Rhinolophus, have a nasal 

 appendage of the most complicated structure. 

 It rests upon a horseshoe-shaped leaf running 

 forward to the end of the snout, and contain- 

 ing the nostrils in deep pits in the middle of 

 its concavity. The nostrils are surmounted by 

 a narrow lancet-shaped process, behind which 

 rises a second larger process of the same 

 form, having several deep pits at its base. 

 The ears are of middle size, narrowed above 

 to a point, the tragus broad, the dentition 

 marked by the unusually large gap in the middle 

 of the upper jaw, in consequence of which the 

 small incisors are placed wholly at the side. 



