32. DEBM0DTJ8. 549 



ticulum of the stomach appears to vary from two to five or six 

 inches, the size in each specimen probably depending on the amount 

 of food obtained by the animal before it was captured. 



Length, head and body 3", head 1", ear 0"-75, tragus 0"'3, forearm 

 2"-5, thumb 0"-65 ; third finger— metacarp. 2"-l, 1st ph. 0"-45, 2nd 

 ph. 0"-65, 3rd ph. 0"-65 ; fourth finger— metacarp. 2"-05, Isfc ph. 

 0"-4, 2nd ph. 0"-6 ; fifth finger— metacarp. 2", 1st ph. 0"-4, 2nd ph. 

 0"-6 ; tibia l"-05, foot 0"-6. 



Hah. Mexican Subregion (Oaxaca ; Vera Paz, Guatemala) ; Bra- 

 zilian Subregion (Ecuador, Bolivia, Guiana, Para, Mate Grosso, Sta. 

 Catherina) ; Chilian Subregion (Peru ; Coquimbo, Chili). 



The first published description of the very peculiar form of the 

 stomach of this species appears to be that by Professor Huxley in 

 the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society for April 1865. Prof. 

 Peters, of Berlin, had previously noted (in the MS. pages of a work 

 on the Mammalia not yet published) the presence in the Desmo- 

 dontes of an intestiniform appendage to the stomach ; but no other 

 zoologist seems to have been aware of the existence of this remark- 

 able departure from the simple type of stomach found in all other 

 groups of Microchiroptera. 



The blood-thirsty propensities of some of the Bats of the ISTeotro- 

 pical Region were long known to travellers, and several species of 

 other groups of this family were set down as blood-suckers by 

 various eminent travellers and naturalists, and named aecordingl}'. 

 Thus the name Vampyrus was suggested to Geoffrey and adopted 

 by Spix, who also considered that the Bats of the group Glosso- 

 phagrt were addicted to blood, and accordingly described Olosso- 

 phaga soricinct, ( 6r. amplexicaudata, Spix) as a very cruel blood-sucker 

 C sanguisuga crudelissima"), believing that the long fibrillated 

 tongue was used to increase the flow of blood. Waterton considered 

 Artiheus (?)planirostris (now kndwn to be frugivorous in its habits) 

 to be the veritable Yampire ; but neither he nor any of the naturalists 

 that preceded him had succeeded in detecting any individual in the 

 act of drawing blood. It fell to the lot of Mr. Charles Darwin to 

 determine one of the species at least ; and the following is his 

 account of the circumstances under which the discovery of the 

 sanguivorous habits of this species was made : — " The Vampire Bat 

 is often the cause of much trouble by biting the horses on their 

 wdthers. The injury is generally not so much owing to the loss of 

 blood, as to the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle after^ 

 wards produces. The whole circumstance has lately been doubted 

 in England ; I was therefore fortunate in being present when one 

 (De^modus d^ orbignyi, Wat.) was actually caught on a horse's back. 

 We were bivouacking late one evening near Coquimbo, in ChOi, 

 when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive, 

 went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could detect 

 something, suddenly put his hand on the beast's wither's, and secured 

 the Vampire"*. 



* ' Naturalist's Voyage Round tlie World,' p. 22 (18.38). 



