MAMMALIA — BAT. 95 



enlarge them, and may penetrate them so deep, as to command a flow of 

 blood by the continual suction of the tongue. But we can only conjecture 

 upon a fact of which all the circumstances are imperfectly known to us, and 

 of which some are perhaps exaggerated, or erroneously related, by the writers 

 who have transmitted them to us. 



Captain Stedman, while sleeping in the open air in Surinam, was attack- 

 ed by one of the spectre bats. On awaking, about four o'clock in the 

 morning, he was extremely alarmed to find himself weltering in congealed 

 blood, and without feeling any pain. Having started up, he ran to the sur- 

 geon with a firebrand in his hand, and all over besmeared with gore. The 

 cause of his alarm was, however, soon explained. After he had applied 

 some tobacco ashes to the wound, and had washed the gore from himself 

 and his hammock, he examined the place where he had lain, and observed 

 several small heaps of congealed blood upon the ground ; on examining 

 which, the surgeon judged that he had lost at least twelve or fourteen ounces. 

 Captain Stedman says, that these animals, knowing by instinct that the 

 person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight 

 near the feet ; where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous 

 wings, which keeps the person cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the 

 great toe, so very small 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 begins again, and 

 thus continues sucking and disgorging till he is scarcely able to fly ; and the 

 sufierer has often been known to sleep from time into eternity. The spectre 

 bat generally bites in the ear, but always in places Avhere the blood will flow 

 spontaneously. 



The following extract is from Waterton : 



" We will now take a view of the vampire. As there was a free entrance 

 and exit to the vampire in the loft, Avhere I slept, I had a fine opportunity 

 of paying attention to this nocturnal surgeon. He does not always live on 

 blood. When the moon shone bright, and the fruit of the banana tree was 

 ripe, I could see him approach and eat it. He would also bring into the loft 

 from the forest, a green round fruit, about the size of a nutmeg. There was 

 something also in the blossom of the sawarri nut-tree that was grateful to 

 him ; for on coming up Waratilla creek in a moonlight night, I saw several 

 vampires fluttering round the sawarri tree, and every now and then the 

 blossoms, which they had broken off", fell into the water. So I concluded 

 that the vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get at the incipient 

 fruit, or to catch the insects which often take up their abode in flowers. 



" The vampire, in general, measures about twenty-six inches from wing to 

 wing extended, though I killed one which measured thirty-two inches. He 

 frequents old houses and hollow trees ; and sometimes a cluster of them 

 may be seen in the forest, hanging head downwards from the branch of a 

 tree. 



