BATS 



457 



ally along gloomy ravines, one is almost sure to startle 

 bats from their sleeping-places ; and at night they are 

 often seen in great numbers flitting about the trees on 

 the shady margins of narrow channels. I captured al- 

 together, without giving especial attention to bats, six- 

 teen different species at Ega. 



The Vampire Bat. — The little gray bloodsucking Phyllo- 

 stoma, mentioned in a former chapter as found in my 

 chamber at Caripi, was not uncommon at Ega, where 

 everyone believes it to visit sleepers and bleed them in 

 the night. But the vampire was here by far the most 

 abundant of the family of leaf-nosed bats. It is the 

 largest of all the South American species, measuring 

 twenty-eight inches in expanse of wing. Nothing in 

 animal physiognomy can be more hideous than the coun- 

 tenance of this creature when viewed from the front ; 

 the large, leathery ears standing out from the sides and 

 top of the head, the erect spear-shaped appendage on the 

 tip of the nose, the grin and the gHstening black eye all 

 combining to make up a figure that reminds one of some 

 mocking imp of fable. No wonder that imaginative 

 people have inferred diabolical instincts on the part of 

 so ugly an animal. The vampire, however, is the most 

 harmless of all bats, and its inoffensive character is well 

 known to residents on the banks of the Amazons. I 

 found two distinct species of it, one having the fur of a 

 blackish colour, the other of a ruddy hue, and ascertained 

 that both feed chiefly on fruits. The church at Ega was 

 the headquarters of both kinds ; I used to see them, as 

 I sat at my door during the short evening twilights, 

 trooping forth by scores from a large open window at the 

 back of the altar, twittering cheerfully as they sped off 

 to the borders of the forest. They sometimes enter 

 houses ; the first time I saw one in my chamber, wheeling 

 heavily round and round, I mistook it for a pigeon, 

 thinking that a tame one had escaped from the premises 

 of one of my neighbours. 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^. The natives say they devour ripe cajus and 



^ The remains of insects belonged to species of Scarites 

 (Coleoptera) having blunt maxillary blades, several of which 

 fly abroad in great numbers on warm nights. 



