THE VAMPIRE BAT. 287 



Other Bats, again, such as our Horseshoe Bat, have 

 membranous growths of a like nature about the nos- 

 trils, which, if we may judge from analogy, perform 

 the same office as the membrane of the wings. 



THE VAMPIRE BAT (Vampirus spectrum). 



We will now proceed to examine one or two species 

 of the Bat, taking as opposite types the blood-sucking 

 Vampire and the fruit- eating Kalong. I intentionally 

 put aside our own species, which are all insect-eaters, 

 pursuing their prey through the air in the hours of 

 darkness. 



The Vampire Bat is a West Indian animal, and is 

 plentiful about Guiana and the regions of tropical 

 America. It is best known by the blood-sucking 

 habits, from which it derives its popular name of 

 Vampire; but I cannot think that it has no other 

 means of subsistence. Blood-sucking may be a luxury, 

 like champagne-drinking, but I do not think that a 

 Vampire Bat lives on blood any more than a human 

 being on champagne. 



Indeed, if the Vampires had nothing to depend 

 upon but the blood of mammalia, I think that they 

 would soon be in as bad a case as would be the so- 

 called " carrion " crows, if they had nothing to live 

 upon but the flesh of dead animals. As far as can be 

 understood of the animal's habits, it must make its 

 ordinary food of insects, and only drink the blood of 

 other animals when it gets a chance of doing so. 



