NATURAL HISTORY. 315 



troops, and oftener by night than by day : they shun 

 places that are much frequented ; and their favourite 

 residence is in the deserted parts of islands. 



I have frequently thought it worlh while to examine 

 how it is possible that these animals should suck the 

 blood of a person asleep, without causing, at the same 

 time, a pain so sensible as to awake him. Were they 

 to cut the flesh with their teeth, o with their claws, 

 the pain of the bile would effectually rouse any of the 

 human species, however soundly asleep. It is only 

 with their tongue, therefore, that it is possible for them, 

 to make such minute apertures in the skin, as to im- 

 bibe the blood through them, and to open the veins 

 without causing an acute pain. 



I have not had an opportunity of oberserving the 

 tongue of the ?ampyre; but that of several roussettes, 

 which Mr Daubenton has attentively axamined, seenas 

 to indicate the possibility of the fact. It is sharp, and 

 full of prickles directed backward ; and it is probable 

 that these prickles, or points, from their exceeding mi- 

 nuteness, may be insinuated into the pores of the skin, 

 enlarge them, and may penetrate them so deep, as to 

 command a flow of the blood by the continued suction 

 of the tongue. But these circumstances are perhaps 

 exaggerated, or erroneously related, by the writers who 

 have transmitted them to us. 



