1842.] Megadermata and certain other Vesper tilionidce. 259 



would be there ; but it was all in vain ; the Vampyre never sucked me, 

 and I could never account for his not doing so, for we were inhabitants 

 of the same loft for months together." — (pp. 174 — 9). 



The very obvious inference is, that the large Phyllostomata, which 

 Mr. Waterton, in common with Steedman and the mass of other 

 narrators of the doings of the Vampyre, have accused of this blood-suck- 

 ing propensity, are totally innocent of the charge, as regards at 

 least their attacking human beings or other large animals ; but that 

 there does exist a true Vampyre, capable of inflicting wounds such as 

 described, which most assuredly the formidable canines of the Phillos- 

 tomata are quite unfitted for, is equally evident from the above cited testi- 

 mony alone. According to Condamine, "The Bats, which suck the 

 blood of horses, mules, and even men, when they do not secure them- 

 selves from them by sleeping under a tent, are a nuisance, common to 

 most of the hot countries of America, and some of them are of a 

 monstrous bigness [?] : at Borja, and in divers other places, they have 

 entirely destroyed the great cattle, which the Missionaries had introduc- 

 ed, and which had begun to multiply in those parts." In corroboration 

 of this account, an accomplished modern traveller, Mr. Schomburgh, has 

 assured me, that at Wicki, on the river Berbice, no fowls could be 

 kept on account of the ravages of these creatures, which attacked their 

 combs, causing these to appear white from loss of blood. Goats resist- 

 ed them best, but even hogs were attacked by them. 



In the report of the Committee of the French Academy, upon the 

 results of M. Alcide d'Orbigny's late expedition, published in the ' Nou- 

 velles Annales du Museum,' III, 90, we are informed, that " Dans l'ordre 

 des Carnassiers, M. d'Orbigny a surtout etudie les Vampyres, dont il 

 a pu confirmer les habitudes de sucer le sang des animaux, et meme 

 de l'homme, et cela sur ces gens et sur les mulets de sa caravanne. 

 L'avidite de ces animaux pour le sang est telle, que les naturels sont 

 obligees pour y soustraire de passer la nuit dans des moustiquaires, et de 

 renfermer soigneusement leurs poules et autre animaux domestiques. Le 

 Vampyre choisit, en general, la nuque, le cou, ou le dos de la victime, 

 afin qu'elle puisse plus difncilement s'en d'ebarasser ; auqu'elle fait 

 cepandant en se roulant sur le dos." 



Thus far we have still no satisfactory information as to what is the real 

 depredator, for not only is there strong presumptive evidence that this 

 cannot be the Phillostoma, as currently supposed, but the real habits of 



