Chap. Y. BATS. 175 



The first few nights I was much troul)led by bats. 

 The room where I slept had not been used for many 

 montlis, and the roof was open to the tiles and rafters. 

 The first night I slept soundly and did not perceive 

 anything unusual, but on the next I was aroused about 

 midnight by the rushing noise made by vast hosts of bats 

 sweeping about the room. The air was alive with them ; 

 they had put out the lamp, and when I relighted it the 

 place appeared blackened with the impish multitudes that 

 were whirling round and round. After I had laid about 

 well with a stick for a few minutes they disappeared 

 amongst the tiles, but when all was still again they 

 returned, and once more extinguished the light. I 

 took no further notice of them, and went to sleep. The 

 next night several got into my hammock ; I seized 

 them as they were crawling over me, and dashed them 

 against the wall. The next morning I found a wound, 

 evidently caused by a bat, on my hip. This was rather 

 unpleasant, so I set to work with the negroes, and tried 

 to exterminate them. I shot a great many as they hung 

 from the rafters, and the negroes having mounted with 

 ladders to the roof outside, routed out from beneath the 

 eaves many hundreds of them, including young broods. 

 There were altogether four species, two belonging to the 

 genus Dysopes, one to Phyllostoma, and the fourth to 

 Glossophaga. By far the greater number belonged to 

 the Dysopes perotis, a species having very large ears, 

 and measuring two feet from tip to tip of the wings. 

 The Phyllostoma was a small kind, of a dark gTay 

 colour, streaked with white down the back, and having 

 a leaf-shaped fleshy expansion on the ti23 of the nose. 



