
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 ina 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 
sufferer has often been known to sleep from time into eternity. The spectre 
bat generally bites in the ear, but always in places where the blood will flow 
spontaneously. 
The following extract is from Waterton : 
“We will now take a view of thevampire. As there was a free entrance 
and exit to the vampire in the loft, where 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 eatit. He would also bring into the Joft 
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 tc 
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 
(re>. 
