246 THE VAMPIRE. 



that they both subsist on the same sort of high-flying insects, and 

 that these continuing abroad but a short time limit the period of 

 activity in bat and bird alike. 



The Horse-shoe Bats are so named from certain curious leaf- 

 like appendages which they have to the nostrils, and which, from 

 the singularity of their shape usually that of a horse-shoe and 

 the prominence of their position, give the animals a very odd 

 and repulsive appearance. Two of our native Bats belong to this 

 section of the tribe, the greater and the lesser Horse-shoe Bats, 

 though from their comparative rarity and the peculiarity of their 

 habits, haunting dark secluded caverns, they are seldom seen 

 and but little known. In the warmer parts of the globe, however, 

 these Bats occur in considerable abundance ; and Dr. Bennett in 

 his " Gatherings of a Naturalist," gives an interesting account of 

 one of them which is found in Australia. It is the Great-leaved 

 Horse-shoe Bat {Ehi/ndlopkus megapliyllus), and occurs in the 

 Gudarigby Caverns, on entering which with torches, Dr. B. says 

 he saw them in great numbers, and was much annoyed by their 

 flapping against his face in their eagerness to escape from the 

 lights. But the most interesting point is, that the skeletons of 

 several of these Bats were found suspended from the roof of the 

 cavern, no doubt in the position in which the animals had died. 



In the tropical regions of South America the Bats are large in 

 size and very numerous ; and many of them subsist in part on 

 the blood of animals, which they obtain by puncturing the skin 

 and sucking the wound while their victim is asleep. One of 

 these is the bloodthirsty Vampire Bat ( Vampirus spectrum) so 

 celebrated in fable and romance. The fearful stories which have 

 been circulated with respect to the habits of these Bats are not 

 without some foundation in fact, although the small modicum of 

 fact has been amplified into a vast amount of fiction. But, as in 

 all cases of the kind, there is no want of authorities who are ready 

 to back up the most extravagant statements as to the frightful 

 powers which these animals possess. 



Here, for example, is Captain Stedmau, who is ready to assure 

 us that the Vampire knows by instinct when the person it in- 

 tends to attack is in a sound slumber, and that alighting near 

 the feet, it bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, very small 

 it is true, so that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into 

 the wound, which is consequently not painful ; but that through 



