THE TRUE VAMPIRES 167 



be quite powerful, the blood is soon flowing freely. Fortu- 

 nately, blood-poisoning is not an attendant evil of the vam- 

 pire's bite, and the wound seldom becomes painful. 



The common Javelin Bat measures a little less than 4 

 inches in length of head and body, and in color is reddish 

 brown. All the other true vampires are smaller, and all are 



BONNETED BAT. 



Promops calif ornicus. (After Harrison Allen.) 



practically tailless, the parachute membrane stretching be- 

 tween the legs, quite down to the feet, without the support 

 of tail vertebrae. Naturally, these creatures are widely 

 known; for any bat which lives upon warm blood, always 

 drawn from a living fountain, is bound to acquire wide no- 

 toriety and a very evil reputation. The skull of a Javelin 

 Bat, seen in profile, looks very much like the skul of a minia- 

 ture wolf. 



In order to illustrate once more how easily a harmless 

 animal can acquire an evil reputation, and further empha- 

 size the necessity of taking direct evidence before pronoun- 

 cing a verdict, we introduce a 28-inch bat from South Amer- 



