260 Notice of the Sanguivorous habits of the [No. 123. 



this group, so far as positively observed, would appear to be solely frugi- 

 vorous and insectivorous. To Mr. Charles Darwin we owe the 

 solution of this mystery. " The Vampyre", writes this accomplished na- 

 turalist, " is often the cause of much trouble, by biting the horses on the 

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

 blood as to the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle afterwards 

 produces. The whole circumstance has lately been doubted in England, 

 and I was therefore fortunate in being present when one was caught on 

 a horse's back. We were bivouacking late one evening near Coquimbo, 

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

 restive, went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could distin- 

 guish something, suddenly put his hand on the beast's withers, and 

 secured the Vampyre. In the morning the spot, where the bite had been 

 inflicted, was easily distinguished from being slightly swollen and bloody. 

 The third day afterwards we rode the horse without any ill effect. 



" Before the introduction of the domesticated quadrupeds," continues 

 Mr. Darwin, "the Vampyre Bat probably preyed on the Guanaco, or 

 Vicugna, for these, together with the Puma, and Man, were the 

 only terrestrial mammalia of large size, which formerly inhabited the 

 northern parts of Chili. This species must be unknown, or very rare, in 

 Central Chili, since Molina, who lived in that part, says that no blood- 

 sucking species is found in that province." 



The specimen here referred to, is now deposited in the Museum of the 

 Zoological Society, and is referrible to the genus Desmodus of Prince 

 Maximilian of Saxe Nieud, or Edostoma of d'Orbigny, differing very 

 widely in its dental characters from Phillostoma, or indeed any other 

 animal previously known. Its entire structure is expressly modified for 

 the Vampyre' s mode of subsistence. It has only two upper incisors, 

 corresponding to the ordinary middle pair of the Primates generally, 

 and which, ordinarily larger than the others, here attain their maxi- 

 mum of development to the exclusion of the latter: they are large, and 

 of singular form, approximated, and occupy the whole space between 

 the canines, are longitudinally bent abruptly inward near the median 

 line, and prolonged and acutely pointed at the tip of the bend, being 

 received into a cavity or sheath behind the lower incisors when the 

 mouth is closed, the under-jaw consequently projecting beyond the up- 

 per : together with analogousl ancet- shaped canines, which are thinly 

 compressed laterally ; they form an admirable instrument for blood-let- 



