l66 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



both the male and the female, for their presence in the 

 former suggests the idea that, where the young are born 

 together, the male may relieve the female of one of 

 them. 



The fifth and last family of the larger primary section 

 of the order of bats is that which I have distinguished 

 as the New World blood-suckers. It indeed is confined 

 exclusively to South and Central America, save one 

 species, which is said to extend up to Bermuda and South 

 Carolina. 



There are from sixty to seventy species, among which 

 the renowned vampires are included. All of them 

 possess nose loaves, but, unlike the Old World nose- 

 leaf bats, they also have a well-developed tragus 

 within the ears, and also rather large eyes. It appears 

 that only one or two of the family are really blood- 

 suckers, and those kinds which in science are specially 

 distinguished as vampires appear to be insect-eating 

 bats. 



All sorts of exaggerated accounts were given, although 

 some old observations which some discredited are now 

 found to have been justified. D'Azara affirmed that 

 they would sometimes bite the wattles and crests of 

 fowls while asleep, and suck their blood. The fowls, 

 he said, generally die of this, as gangrene is engendered 

 by the wounds. He adds : 



' • They bite also horses, mules, asses, and horned cattle, 

 usually on the shoulders, buttocks, or neck, as they are 

 better enabled to arrive at those parts from the facilities 

 afforded them by the mane and tail. Nor is man himself 

 secure from their attacks. On this point I am able 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 the cottages in the open country. The wounds which 



