346 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



locally called . . . ' morcego,' andira or guaudira. These big 

 ruddy-brown bats, of ghostly flight and cannibal tastes, are con- 

 fined to the American continent, and they unaccountably prefer 

 particular spots. ... In Sao Paolo and Minas, no case of a man 

 having been bitten by the ' ugly spectre bats ' came under my 

 notice. . . . However . . . Cabiza de Vaca (1543) was wounded 

 by the leaf-nosed . . . monster near the lake Xarayes. Messrs. 

 Bates and A. R. Wallace, and . . . Mr. Charles H. Williams of 

 Bahia, suffered in person on the Amazons, where the rhinophyll 

 appears to be decidedly anthropophagous. The mode of the vam- 

 pire's attack has of late years become the subject of debate. The 

 wound is softly and skilfully inflicted. I never saw my horses or 

 mules terrified by it. Prince Max. asserts that it uses its teeth. 

 Gardner believes the puncture is made by the sharp-hooked nail 

 of the thumb. Lieutenant Herndon thinks that the tusks bite, 

 while the nostrils are fitted for a suction apparatus. Others trace 

 the wound to the papillae of the tongue. . . .• The armature of the 

 jaw, however, speaks for itself. It must be Hke a Vision of 

 Judgment to awake suddenly and to find upon the tip of one's 

 nose, in the act of drawing one's life-blood, that demoniacal face 

 with deformed nose, satyr-like ears, and staring fixed saucer-eyes, 

 backed by a body measuring two feet from wing end to wing end." 

 Mr. H. W. Bates says that* "the vampire, however, is the 

 most harmless of all bats, and its inofiensive character is well- 

 known to residents on the banks of the Amazons. ... I opened 

 the stomachs of several of these bats, and found them to contain 

 a mass of pulp and seeds of fruits, mingled with a few remains of 

 insects.'' 



Capybara and Paca {Rodentid), 



The capybara, Hydrochxrus capybara (Cavida), is allied to the 

 guinea-pig. It is the largest of living rodents, attaining a length 

 of three or four feet. It is a South American form, leading a 

 semi-aquatic life, to which end its feet are incompletely webbed. 

 It is a harmless, stupid animal, and not unlike a small pig in 

 appearance .f 



* "The Naturalist on the River Amazons," vol. ii. p. 333. 

 t AUeyne Nicholson, " Manual of Zoology. " 



