THE VAMPIRE BAT. 
105 
teeth to the upturned foot, and inserted them into the tip of a toe with such adroit dexterity, 
that no pain was caused by the tiny wound. The lips were then brought into action, and the 
blood was sucked until the bat was satiated. It then disgorged the food which it had just 
taken, and began afresh, continuing its alternate feeding and disgorging, until the victim 
perished from sheer loss of blood. 
For a time, this statement gained dominion, but, after a while, was less and less believed, 
until at last, naturalists repudiated the whole story as a “traveller’s tale.” However, as 
usual, the truth seems to have lain between the two extremes ; for it is satisfactorily ascer- 
tained, by more recent travellers, that the Vampires really do bite both men and cattle during 
the night, but that the wound is never known to be fatal, and, in most instances, causes but 
little inconvenience to the sufferer. 
When they direct their attacks against mankind, the Vampires almost invariably select 
the foot as their point of operation, and their blood-loving propensities are the dread of both 
natives and Europeans. With singular audacity, the bats even creep into human habitations, 
and seek out the exposed feet of any sleeping inhabitant who has incautiously neglected to 
draw a coverlet over his limbs. 
When they attack quadrupeds, they generally fix themselves on the shoulders and flanks 
of the animal, and inflict wounds sufficiently severe to cause damage unless properly attended 
to. It is quite a common occurrence that when the cattle are brought from the pastures 
wherein they have passed the night, their shoulders and flanks are covered with blood from 
the bites of these blood-loving bats. It might be said that the bleeding wounds might be 
accounted for by some other cause, but the matter was set at rest by a fortunate capture of a 
Vampire “red-handed” in the very act of wounding a horse. 
Darwin, who narrates the circumstance, states that he was travelling in the neighborhood 
of Coquimbo, in Chili, and had halted for the night. One of the horses became very restless, 
and the servant, who went to see what was the matter with the animal, fancied that he could 
see something strange on its withers. He put his hand quickly on the spot and secured a 
Vampire Bat. Next morning there was some inflammation and soreness on the spot where 
the bat had been captured, but the ill effects soon disappeared, and three days afterwards the 
horse was as well as ever. 
It does not seem to be the severity of the wound which does the harm, but the irritation 
which is caused by pressure, whether of a saddle, in the case of a horse, or of clothing, in the 
case of a human being. 
The Vampire seems to be very capricious in its tastes, for while one person may sleep in 
the open air with perfect impunity, another will be wounded almost nightly. Mr. Waterton, 
urged by his usual enthusiastic desire for personal investigation, slept for the space of eleven 
months in an open loft, where the Vampires came in and out every night. They were seen 
hovering over the hammock, and passing through the apertures that served for windows, but 
never made a single attack. Yet an Indian, who slept within a few yards, suffered frequently 
by the abstraction of blood from his toes. This distinction was not on account of color, for a 
young lad about twelve years of age, the son of an English gentleman, was bitten on the fore- 
head with such severity, that the wound bled freely on the following morning. The fowls 
of the same house suffered so terribly, that they died fast ; and an unfortunate jackass was 
being killed by inches. He looked, to use Mr. Waterton’ s own language, “like misery steeped 
in vinegar.” 
Although these bats have so great a predilection for the blood of animals, they are not 
restricted to so sanguinary a diet, but live chiefly on insects which they capture on the wing. 
Indeed, they would have but a meagre diet were they to depend wholly on a supply of human 
or brute blood, for there are sufficient Vampires in existence to drain the life-blood from man 
and beast. Many other creatures have the same propensities — happy if they can gratify them ; 
satisfied if they are withheld from so doing. The common leech is a familiar example of a 
similar mode of life ; for it may be that not one leech out of a thousand ever tastes blood at 
all, although they are so ravenously eager after it when they have the opportunity for gratif y- 
ing their sanguinary taste. 
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