Popular SJicttonarj) of 8mmatcfc #aturr. 719 



Cuvier considers the Aurochs to be a species 

 which man has never subdued ; and observes, 

 in his Ossemens Fossiles, that if Europe pos- 

 sessed a Urus, a Thur of the Poles, different 

 from the Bison or the A nrocha of the Ger- 

 mans, it is only in its remains that the spe- 

 cies can be traced ; such remain- are found, 

 in the skulls of a species of ox different from 

 the Aurochs, in the superficial beds of certain 

 districts. This, Cuvier thinks, must be the 

 true Urns of the ancients, the original of our 

 domestic ox, the stock perhaps whence our 

 wild cattle descended ; while the Aurochs 

 of the present day is nothing more than the 

 Bison or Bonasus of the ancients, a specie* 

 which has never been brought under the 

 yoke. [See Ox : Bisox.] 



VAMPIRE-BAT. ( Vampiru* spectrum.) 

 This bat is a native of South America, of a 

 reddish-brown colour, and as large as a 

 magpie. I4 is sai<1 > bv Piso < to "seek out 

 every kind of animal and suck their blood." 

 This fact has often been most circumstan- 

 tially related, and as often positively denied ; 

 but if we compare the accounts of many 

 highly respectable modern travellers, the 

 truth of the statement will appear to be fully 

 established. Captain Stedman, who had 

 himself been bitten, thus describes the ope- 

 ration. "Knowing by instinct that the 

 person they intend to attack is in a sound 

 slumber, they generally alight near the feet, 

 where, while the creature continues fanning 

 with its enormous wings, which keeps 

 one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of 

 the great toe, so very small, indeed, that 

 the head of a pin could be scarcely re- 

 ceived into the wound, which is conse- 

 quently not painful ; yet through this orifice 

 he continues to suck the blood until he is 

 obliged to disgorge. He then begins again, 

 and thus continues sucking and disgorging 

 till he is scarce able to fly ; and the sufferer 

 has often been known to sleep from time 

 into eternity." To the same effect is the 

 testimony of several other naturalists who 

 have paid attention to the subject, among 

 whom may be named Messrs. Darwin, Swain- 

 son, and Waterton ; the last of whom ob- 

 serves, that " Europeans may consider as 

 fabulous the stories related of Hie Vampire ; 

 but, for my own part, I must believe in its 

 powers of sucking blood from living animals, 

 as I have repeatedly seen both men and 

 beasts which had been sucked, and, more- 

 over, I have examined very minutely their 

 bleeding wounds." But he admits that he 

 could never find out how the Vampires ac- 

 tually draw the blood ; and that he con- 

 tinued as ignorant of the real process as 

 though he had never been in the Vampire's 

 country. " For the space of eleven months," 

 adds this most amusing writer, " I slept alone 

 in the loft of a woodcutter's abandoned house 

 in the forest ; and though the Vampire came 

 in and out every night, and I had the finest 

 opportunity of seeing him, as the moon shone 

 through apertures where windows had once 

 been, I never could be certain that I saw 

 him make a positive attempt to quench his 

 thirst from my veins, though he often ho- 

 vered over the hammock." 



VANESSA. A genus of Diurnal Lepi- 

 j doptera belonging to the family A ijmjthalulce, 

 \ in most of the species of which the wings are 

 angulated. The caterpillar has numerous 

 bristly spines, and the pupa is much angu- 

 lated and suspended by the tail. In Double- 

 day and Hewitson's work, descriptions and 

 figures of the various forms will be found : 

 we limit our notice to the British species, 

 which are all eminently handsome. 



VANKSSA C. ALBUM ; or COMMA BUTTER- 

 FLY. Of late years this insect appear* 

 to have become much more scarce than 

 formerly, or it may have forsaken iU old 

 localities and found new ones : it frequents 

 woods, thickets and gardens ; and there 

 are two broods in the year, one towards 

 the end of June, the other in September. 

 IVings above dark orange, with black or 



COMMA BUTIKUH.Y. (VAKK8BA 0. ALBUM. ) 



brown spots, and a brown posterior margin ; 

 on the disc of the anterior wings are two 

 I roundish spots, and near the interior margin 

 j two other larger spots ; beneath, the anterior 

 wings are dusky-brown, with a broad, irre- 

 | gular, green-marbled pale band near the 

 posterior margin : posterior wings very simi- 

 lar, with a pure white crescent in the centre: 

 near the posterior margin of all the wings is 

 an irregular series of spurious ocelli. Body 

 above dusky, witli greenish hairs on the 

 thorax : antenntc black above, brown annu- 

 lated with white beneath. Caterpillar red- 

 brown and yellow: it feeds on the hop, 

 nettle, elm, gooseberry, and honey-suckle. 

 The chrysalis is flesh-coloured, spotted with 

 gold. 



VANESSA POLYCHLOROS ; or GREAT TOR- 

 TOISE-SHKLL BUTTERFLY. This insect fre- 

 quents woody places and lanes where elms 

 abound, and in some seasons it is particu- 

 larly abundant in some situations. Wings 

 above dark orange, with the base dusky, 



