ORDER CARNASSIER. 123 



these writers by his own testimony, and it has received 

 further confirmation from the judicious remarks of an ob- 

 server, equally distinguished by his accuracy and discrimi- 

 nation, Don Felix d'Azzara, from whom we shall translate 

 the following passage : 



" The species, with a leaf upon the nose, differ from the 

 other bats in being able to turn, when on ths ground, 

 nearly as fast as a rat, and in their fondness for sucking the 

 blood of animals. Sometimes they will bite the crests and 

 beards of the fowls while asleep, and suck the blood. The 

 fowls generally die in consequence of this, as a gangrene is 

 engendered in the wounds. They bite also horses, mules, 

 asses, and horned-cattle, usually on the buttocks, shoulders, 

 or neck, as they are better enabled to arrive at these parts 

 from the facilities afforded them by the mane or tail. Nor 

 is man himself secure from their attacks. On this point, 

 indeed, I am enabled to give a very faithful testimony, 

 since I have had the ends of my toes bitten by them, four 

 times, while I was sleeping in cottages in the open country. 

 The wounds which they inflicted, without my feeling them 

 at the time, were circular, and rather elliptical ; their diameter 

 was trifling, and their depth so superficial, as scarcely to pene- 

 trate the cutis. It was easy,also, on examination, to perceive, 

 that these wounds were made by suction, and not by puncture, 

 as might be supposed. The blood that is drawn, in cases 

 of this description, does not come from the veins, or from: 

 the arteries, because the wound does not extend so far, but 

 from the capillary vessels of the skin extracted thence, 

 without doubt, by these bats, by the action of sucking or 

 licking." Hist. Nat. du Paraguay, tome 2. p. 273. 



Buffon, in investigating the possibility of the Vampires 

 sucking blood, without causing, at the same time, a pain of 

 sufficient acuteness to awaken a sleeping person, concludes 

 that the operation must be performed with the tongue ; and 

 he adds, that we may form an idea of the modus operandi, 



