BATS. I25 



largest variety of the Vampirus spectrum measures 

 nearly four feet across the wings, but is found only in 

 Guiana. The smaller Brazilian species are very fre- 

 quent ; they are most troublesome in the darkest nights, 

 and develop an almost miraculous instinct in the se- 

 lection of their victims : in a roomful of sleeping people 

 the soundest sleeper is always first attacked; and Baron 

 Spix mentions the case of two drunken sailors who 

 passed the night in the woods and were found almost 

 exsangiiis the next morning. 



But, after all, the vampire-plague is a mere trifle com- 

 pared with the Kalong nuisance : there is reason to be- 

 lieve that the myth of the harpies must have been 

 derived from the winged gluttons whose countless 

 swarms infest the forests of the Eastern Archipelago, 

 and whose ravages would exceed those of the Egyptian 

 locust if their habitat were not a region of inexhaustible 

 fertility. The larger varieties are often brought to Hol- 

 land; and an Amsterdam curiosity-dealer once showed 

 me a pair of Javanese Roussette-Kalongs (Ptcropus vul- 

 garis), the only absolutely insatiable creatures I ever 

 saw, though I have raised young caterpillars and hawk- 

 owls. Night or day made no difference to them : the 

 moment their box was opened they thrust out their 

 fox-like heads and proceeded to gape with jaws that 

 seemed to open by sections, revealing additional teeth 

 in the far interior of the skull. Whatever those jaws 

 could compass went down at one gulp ; larger morsels 



