THE BATS. 



numerous family of the South American leaf- 

 nosed bats or vampires, the largest species 

 of which, the True Vampire {Phyllostoma 

 spectrum), a species with a span of 28 inches, 

 is represented in fig. 44. The nose-leaf ex- 

 actly resembles the point of a halbert. It 

 has a broad crescent-shaped base, the ends of 

 which are directed upwards. In the middle 

 of the concave edge 

 of this base are situ- 

 ated the nostrils, 

 which are small. 

 From the nostrils a 

 middle ridge rises to 

 the point of the leaf 

 which proceeds from 

 the horns of the cres- 

 cent. The head is 

 short and thick, the 

 ears pretty large, 

 spoon -shaped, with 

 small hairy tragi; the 

 thin lips of the wide 

 mouth have warty 

 projections on them, 

 which perhaps play 

 a part in the opera- 

 tion of sucking. The 

 tongue is short, and 

 scarcely protrusible. 



This family, occurring only in South 

 America, is distinguished by the peculiar 

 character of its dentition. For the most part 

 there is one small but broad incisor with a 

 notched chisel-shaped crown in each half of 

 the upper jaw; many genera have two. The 

 canines are very long, especially in the lower 

 jaw, recurved, very sharply pointe^d, and with 

 sharp cutting edges. Then follow generally 

 two single-cusped premolars, and three molars 

 with several cusps, the last of which is very 

 small. The number of the premolars likewise 

 varies 



2 • I • 2 • 3 



able to gather so 



The dental formula of the genus 



Phyllostoma is 



2 • I • 2 • 3 



l^- 



many 



species the tail is altogether wanting ; in 



others it is present, sometimes longer and 

 sometimes shorter, and on this difference, as 

 well as on the differences in the structure of 

 the teeth, are founded the different genera. 



From the many contradictory accounts re- 

 lating to these animals, which are still the 

 subject of a variety of fables, we seem to be 

 much at least, that their 

 diet is a very 

 varied one, differ- 

 ing in different cir- 

 cumstances and 

 in different re- 

 gions. Most of 

 all they seem to 

 prefer insects, and 

 then juicy fruits, 

 and where these 

 are present in 

 sufficient abund- 

 ance they appear 

 neither to attack 

 the lower warm- 

 blooded animals 

 nor man. But 

 when this kind of 

 ; food is not to be 

 ^ had, mammals 

 and birds must 

 make up for this 

 defect. They approach sleeping animals 

 and men so noiselessly that these are not 

 awakened, and then begin sucking at some 

 naked part, preferring in man to attack 

 the toes when seen projecting beyond the 

 blankets, these parts being almost insen- 

 sible from cold. They then pierce the skin 

 with their small notched incisors, making 

 a minute wound like that of a leech, a 

 wound that continues to bleed for a longer 

 or shorter time according to the constitution 

 of the person bitten. The results of these 

 bites and the subsequent loss of blood have 

 been enormously exaggerated, and careful 

 inquirers, who were bitten themselves, have 

 very reasonably drawn attention to the fact 



Fig. 43. — The Flap-nosed Eat {Rliinopoma micropkyllum). pa^e 107, 



