WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 321 



The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, and not unlike 

 those of the rat. If it be that he inflicts the wounds 

 with his teeth, (and he seems to have no other instru- 

 ments,) one would suppose that the acuteness of the pain 

 would cause the person who is sucked, to awake. We 

 are in darkness in this matter ; and I know of no means 

 by which one might be enabled to throw light upon it. 

 It is to be hoped that some future wanderer through the 

 wilds of Guiana, will be more fortunate than I have been, 

 and catch this nocturnal depredator in the fact. I have 

 once before mentioned that I killed a vampire which 

 measured thirty-two inches from wing to wing extended ; 

 but others, which I have since examined, have generally 

 been from twenty to twenty-six inches in dimension. 



The large humming-bird, called by the Indians Kara- 

 bimiti, invariably builds its nest in the slender branches 

 of the trees which hang over the rivers and creeks. In 

 appearance, it is like brown tanned leather, and without a 

 particle of lining. The rim of the nest is double inwards, 

 and I always conjectured that it had taken this shape on 

 account of the body of the bird pressing against it while 

 she was laying her eggs. But this is quite a wrong 

 conjecture. Instinct has taught the bird to give it this 

 shape, in order that the eggs may be prevented from 

 rolling out. 



The trees on the river's bank are particularly exposed 

 to violent gusts of wind, and while I have been sitting in 

 the canoe, and looking on, I have seen the slender branch 

 of the tree which held the humming-bird's nest so violently 

 shaken, that the bottom of the inside of the nest has 

 appeared, and had there been nothing at the rim to 

 stop the eggs, they must inevitably have been jerked 

 into the water. I suspect the humming-bird never lays 

 more than two eggs. I never found more than two in any 



Y 



