ANIMALS OF THE 



taken their ideas of harpies from these fierce and 

 voracious creatures, as they both concur in many 

 parts of the description, being equally deformed, 

 greedy, uncleanly, and cruel. 



An animal not so formidable, but still more 

 mischievous than these, is the American Vam- 

 pyre. This is still less than the former; but 

 more deformed, and still more numerous. It is 

 furnished with a horn like the rhinoceros bat; 

 and its ears are extremely long. The other 

 kinds generally resort to the forest, and the most 

 deserted places ; but these come into towns and 

 cities, and after sun-set, when they begin to fly, 

 cover the streets like a canopy.* They are the 

 common pest both of men and animals ; they 

 effectually destroy the one, and often distress the 

 other. " They are," says Ulloa, " the most ex- 

 pert blood-letters in the world. The inhabitants 

 of those warm latitudes being obliged, by the 

 excessive heats, to leave open the doors and win- 

 dows of the chambers where they sleep, the 

 vampyres enter, and if they find any part of the 

 body exposed, they never fail to fasten upon it. 

 There they continue to suck the blood; and it 

 often happens that the person dies under the 

 operation. They insinuate their tooth into a vein 

 with all the art of the most experienced surgeon, 

 continuing to exhaust the body, until they are 

 satiated. I have been assured," continues he, 

 " by persons of the strictest veracity, that such 

 an accident has happened to them ; and that, had 



* Ulloa, Tol. i. p. 58. 



