312 



ZOOLOGY OF 



which appears as if a great number of animals were crying in 

 concert. This, however, is not the case ; a full-grown male 

 alone makes the howling, which is generally heard at night, or 

 on the approach of rain. 



The annexed list of the other larger mammalia of the Amazon 

 district, will serve to confirm the statement of the extreme 

 poverty of these regions in that class of animals. Owing to 

 the loss of my notes and specimens, many of the specific 

 names are doubtful : such are marked thus — ? 



Phyllostoma hasfatujn. — This is a common bat on the 

 Amazon, and is, I believe, the one which does much injury to 

 the horses and cattle by sucking their blood ; it also attacks 

 men, when it has opportunity. The species of blood-sucking 

 bats seem to be numerous in the interior. They do not inhabit 

 houses, like many of the frugivorous bats, but enter at dusk 

 through any aperture they may find. They generally attack 

 the tip of the toe, or sometimes any other part of the body 

 that may be exposed. I have myself been twice bitten, once 

 on the toe, and the other time on the tip of the nose ; in neither 

 case did I feel anything, but awoke after the operation was com- 

 pleted : in what way they effect it is still quite unknown. The 

 wound is a small round hole, the bleeding of which it is very 

 difficult to stop. It can hardly be a bite, as that would awake 

 the sleeper ; it seems most probable that it is either a succes- 

 sion of gentle scratches with the sharp edge of the teeth, gradu- 

 ally wearing away the skin, or a triturating with the point of 

 the tongue, till the same effect is produced. My brother was 

 frequently bitten by them, and his opinion was, that the bat 

 applied one of its long canine teeth to the part, and then flew 

 round and round on that as a centre, till the tooth, acting as 

 an awl, bored a small hole ; the wings of the bat serving, at 

 the same time, to fan the patient into a deeper slumber. He 

 several times awoke while the bat was at work, and though 

 of course the creature immediately flew away, it was his im- 

 pression that the operation was conducted in the manner 

 above described. Many persons are particularly annoyed by 

 bats, while others are free from their attacks. An old Mulatto 

 at Guia, on the Upper Rio Negro, was bitten almost every 

 night, and though there were frequently half-a-dozen other 

 persons in the room, he would be the party favoured by their 



