WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 189 



at the incipient fruit, or to catcli tlie insects which 

 often take up their abode in flowers. 



The vampire, in general, measures about twen- 

 six inches from wing to wing, extended, though 

 I once killed one which measured thirty- two 

 inches. He frequents old abandoned houses and 

 hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them 

 may be seen in the forest hanging head down- 

 wards, from the branch of a tree. 



Goldsmith seems to have been aware that the 

 vampire hangs in clusters; for in the Deserted 

 Village, speaking of America, he says, — 



' ' And matted woods, where birds forget to sing, 

 But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling." 



The vampire has a curious membrane, which 

 rises from the nose, and gives it a very singular 

 appearance. It has been remarked before, that 

 there are two species of vampire in Guiana, a 

 larger and a smaller. The larger sucks men and 

 other animals ; the smaller seems to confine him- 

 self chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman, 

 high up in the river Demerara, that he was com- 

 pletely unsuccessful with his fowls, on account 

 of the small vampire. He showed me some tliat 

 had been sucked the night before, and they were 

 scarcely able to walk. 



Some years ago I went to the river Paumaron 

 with a Scotch gentleman, by name Tarbet. We 

 hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a 

 planter's house. Next morning I heard this gen- 

 tleman muttering in his hammock, and now and 

 then letting fall an imprecation or two, just about 

 the time he ought to have been saying his morn- 



