INDEX. 215 



mon sort in England ; its intestines and skeleton in some 

 measure resemble those of mankind ; makes its first appear- 

 ance early in summer, and begins its flight in the evening ; 

 is seen to skim along the surface of waters ; feeds upon 

 gnats, moths, and nocturnal insects of every kind, which it 

 pursues open mouthed ; its flight laborious, irregular, and, 

 if interrupted, not readily followed by a second elevation ; 

 usually taken when, striking against an object, it falls to the 

 ground ; even in the summer it sleeps the greatest part of 

 the time ; its retreat ; continues in a torpid state during 

 winter ; is usually hanging by its hooked claws to the roofs 

 of caves, unaffected by all changes of weather ; is destroyed 

 particularly by the owl ; the bat couples and brings forth in 

 summer from two to five young at a time ; the female has 

 two nipples forward on the breast, as in the human kind, 

 and this a motive for Linnaeus to give it the title of a primas, 

 to rank it in the same order with mankind ; the female makes 

 no nest for her young; when she begins to grow hungry, 

 and finds a necessity of stirring abroad, she takes her little 

 ones and sticks them by their hooks against the sides of her 

 apartment, and there the}' immoveably cling, and patiently 

 wait her return ; less similitude to the race of birds than of 

 quadrupeds ; great labour in flying, soon fatigues, and tires 

 it in less than an hour ; its petty thefts upon the fat of ba- 

 con ; long-eared bat ; horse-shoe bat ; rhinoceros bat ; a 

 larger race of bats in the East and West Indies truly formi- 

 dable ; a dangerous enemy ; when united in flocks they be- 

 come dreadful ; they are eaten ; the Negroes of the African 

 coasts will not eat them though starving ; on the African 

 coast they fly in such numbers 'as to obscure the setting 

 sun ; the rousette, or great bat of Madagascar, is found 

 along the coasts of Africa and Malabar, where it is often 

 seen about the size of a large hen ; destroys the ripe fruits, 

 and sometimes settles upon animals, and man himself; de- 

 stroys fowls and domestic animals, unless preserved with 

 the utmost care, and often fastens upon the inhabitants, at- 

 tacks them in the face, and makes terrible wounds ; the 

 ancients have taken their idea of harpies from these fierce 

 and voracious creatures, equally deformed, greedy, un- 

 cleanly, and cruel ; the bat called the American vampyre, 

 its description by Ulloa ; purport of his account confirmed 

 by various travellers, who all agree that it has a faculty of 

 drawing blood from persons sleeping, and destroying them 

 before they awake ; a strong difficulty remains how they 

 make the wound ; Ulloa and Buffon's opinions suppose the 

 animal endowed with a strong power of suction, and that, 

 without inflicting any wound, by continuing to draw, it en- 

 larges the pores of the skin, so that the blood at length 

 passes ; they are one of the great pests of South America, 



