124 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



by examining the tongue of a roussette, of which, with its 

 hand, slender and sharp papillee, directed backwards, he 

 gives a figure. The tongue of the phyllostomata is not formed 

 in a similar model, as we have already remarked ; the con- 

 jecture of Buffon, is not, however, the less well-founded. 

 It is most certain, that a man who was sleeping ever so 

 profoundly, and that animals, whose sleep is much more 

 light than ours, must, unquestionably, be awakened, and that 

 abruptly enough, by the pain of a bite inflicted with teeth. 

 It is the tongue alone which can make apertures sufficiently 

 subtile to open the extremities of the veins, without causing 

 an acute sensation of pain. This conjecture becomes cer- 

 tainty, when we discover a portion of the tongue, such as 

 we have above described, exactly constituted as an organ 

 of suction, and designed, in fact, for the performance of 

 that identical function. 



It must not, however, be imagined that the phyllosto- 

 mata are absolutely and exclusively nourished by the blood 

 of animals. They have attained sufficient of a terrible ce- 

 lebrity, by destroying, altogether, at Borja, and other 

 places, the cattle which the missionaries had introduced, 

 without adding to their evil reputation by any marvellous 

 exaggerations. They all live on insects, in the manner of the 

 other bats ; this fact has been proved, by opening the sto- 

 machs of several of them ; d'Azzara declares that they 

 would not venture to attack the cattle during the night, 

 except when prompted by hunger, arising from the defi- 

 ciency of other alimentary matter. 



All of these bats, whether the jaws be short or elongated, 

 suck the blood of animals. Peter Martyr relates it of the 

 phyllostomata, of the isthmus of Darien ; the two Ulloas, 

 of those of Carthagena ; Raume, of the vampire of the 

 isle of Trinity ; and Don Felix d'Azzara, of all the species 

 which he discovered in Paraguay. Pison, previous to the 

 time of these travellers, reported that this thirst of blood, 



