THE VAMPIRE BAT. 33 



for extracting the juices of fruit, live in society about some spot 

 where there are two or three tamarind trees, from which, during 

 the day, they hang in crowds, rank and file, uttering a loud 

 noise in concert. 



The food of the vampire bats appears to differ according to the 

 species, some feeding chiefly on fruit, and others on small birds 

 and mammals. M. de Condamine says, the vampires are a 

 scourge to most of the hot countries of America, and that they 

 suck the blood of horses, mules, and even men, when not guarded 

 against by sleeping under the shelter of a pavilion 5 and he asserts 

 that, in his time, they had even destroyed at Barja, and several 

 other places, the breed of great cattle introduced there by the 

 missionaries. 



The common vampire bat of South America is of a reddish 

 brown colour ; its body is about six inches long, and the extent 

 of its wings is upwards of two feet. 



It is said to suck the blood, not only of animals but of men, 

 and sometimes to such an excess that they die the victims of its 

 gratuitous phlebotomy j but Cuvier remarks, that the truth ap- 

 pears to be, that it merely inflicts very small wounds which may 

 sometimes inflame, and become gangrenous from the influence 

 of climate. Captain Stedman, who travelled in Surinam, from 

 1772 to 1777, relates, that on awaking in his hammock about 

 four o'clock one morning, he was extremely alarmed at finding 

 himself weltering in congealed blood, but without feeling any 

 pain whatever. " The mystery was." says he, " that I had been 

 bitten by the vampire, or spectre of Guiana, which is also called 

 the flying dog of New Spain. Knowing by instinct that the 

 person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they gene- 

 rally alight near the feet, where, while the creature continues 

 fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he 

 bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small, indeed, 

 that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, 

 which is, consequently, not painful -, yet, through this orifice 

 he sucks the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. He then be- 

 gins again, and thus continues sucking and disgorging, until he 



D 



