FOURTH JOURNEY. 249 



he inflicts the wound with his teeth (and he seems to 

 have no other instruments), one would suppose that 

 the acuteness of the pain would cause the person who 

 is sucked, to awake. "We are in darkness in this 

 matter ; and I know of no means "by which one might 

 be enabled to throw light upon it. It is to be hoped 

 that some future wanderer through the wilds of 

 Guiana will be more fortunate than I have been, and 

 catch this nocturnal depredator in the fact. I 

 have once before mentioned that I killed a vampire 

 which measured thirty-two inches from wing to wing 

 extended ; but others, which I have since examined, 

 have generally been from twenty to twenty-six inches 

 in dimension. 



The large humming-bird, called by the Indians Ivara- 

 bimiti, invariably builds its nest in the 

 bimttf Kara " s l en der branches of the trees which hang 

 over the rivers and creeks. In appearance, 

 it is like brown tanned leather, without any particle of 

 lining. The rim of the nest is doubled inwards, and I 

 always conjectured that it had taken this shape on ac- 

 count of the body of the bird pressing against it while 

 she was laying her eggs. But this was quite a wrong 

 conjecture. Instinct has taught the bird to give it this 

 shape, in order that the eggs may be prevented from 

 rolling out. 



The trees on the river's bank are particularly exposed 

 to violent gusts of wind, and while I have been sitting 

 in the canoe, and looking on, I have seen the slender 

 branch of the tree which held the humming-bird's nest 

 so violently shaken, that the bottom of the inside of 

 the nest has appeared, and had there been nothing at 

 the rim to stop the eggs, they must inevitably have 



