RATS 



117 



to bring me all the quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and shells 

 they met with, and so altogether I was enabled to acquire 

 a good collection of the productions of the district. 



The first few nights I was much troubled by bats. 

 The room where I slept had not been used for many 

 months, and the roof was open to the tiles and rafters. 

 The first night I slept soundly and did not perceive any- 

 thing unusual, but on the next I was aroused about mid- 

 night by the rushing noise made by vast hosts of bats 

 sweeping about the room. The air was alive with them ; 

 they had put out the lamp, and when I relighted it the 

 place appeared blackened with the impish multitudes 

 that were whirling round and round. After I had laid 

 about well with a stick for a few minutes they disappeared 

 amongst the tiles, but when all was still again they re- 

 turned, and once more extinguished the light. I took 

 no further notice of them, and went to sleep. The next 

 night several got into my hammock ; I seized them as 

 they were crawling over me, and dashed them against 

 the wall. The next morning I found a wound, evidently 

 caused by a bat, on my hip. This was rather unpleasant, 

 so I set to work with the negroes, and tried to exterminate 

 them. I shot a great many as they hung from the rafters, 

 and the negroes having mounted with ladders to the roof 

 outside, routed out from beneath the eaves many hundreds 

 of them, including young broods. There were altogether 

 four species, two belonging to the genus Dysopes, one to 

 Phyllostoma, and the fourth to Glossophaga. By far the 

 greater number belonged to the Dysopes perotis, a species 

 having very large ears, and measuring two feet from tip 

 to tip of the wings. The Phyllostoma was a small kind, 

 of a dark gray colour, streaked with white down the 

 back, and having a leaf-shaped fleshy expansion on the 

 tip of the nose. I was never attacked by bats except on 

 this occasion. The fact of their sucking the blood of 

 persons sleeping, from wounds which they make in the 

 toes, is now well established ; but it is only a few persons 

 who are subject to this blood-letting. According to the 

 negroes, the Phyllostoma is the only kind which attacks 

 man. Those which I caught crawling over me were 

 Dysopes, and I am inclined to think many different kinds 

 of bat have this propensity. 



One day I was occupied searching for insects in the 

 bark of a fallen tree, when I saw a large cat-like animal 



