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NATURAL Bits TORY. 
the tail. Lastly, man is not free from their attacks ; and upon this point I can give certain testimony, 
seeing that they have bitten me four times in the tips of my great toes, when I was sleeping in the 
open country in huts. The wounds they made without my feeling them were circular or elliptical, from 
a line to a line and a half in diameter, bat so shallow that they did not entirely penetrate my skin, 
and it could be seen that they were made by removing a small piece, and not by piercing, as might be 
supposed. Besides the blood which they sucked, I reckon that what flowed away might be half an 
ounce when I lost most by their attack ; but as the effusion in the case of horses and cattle is about 
three ounces, and the skin of these animals is very thick, it is to be supposed that the wounds are 
larger and deeper. This blood comes neither from the veins nor from the arteries, seeing that the wound 
does not extend to them, but from the capillary vessels of the skin, from which the Bats, no doubt, 
draw it by sucking and licking. Although my wounds were painful for several days, they were of .so 
little consequence that I did not apply any remedy to them.” 
These statements of Azara’s reduce the affair to rather more moderate dimensions than would 
appear to belong to them from the exaggerated statements of the older writers, wliich can only be 
accepted with some allowance for the love of the marvellous inherent in those who have strange things 
to tell of new countries. But even these less extravagant accounts of the Yampires of South America 
were regarded in Europe with some feeling of scepticism ; and Mi*. Darwin appears to have been one 
of the first reliable naturalists to observe the act of blood-sucking on the part of a Bat of this family, 
belonging to the genus Desmodus. He says (“ Journal,” p. 25) : — 
“ The Vampire Bat is often the cause of much trouble, by biting the Horses on their 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 ; I was 
therefore fortunate in being present when one was actually 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 distinguish something, 
suddenly put his hand on the beast’s withers, and secured the Vampire. 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 effects.” 
Tschudi, who travelled in Peru, and wrote on the natural history of that country, gives an account 
of his experience in the matter of Bat-bites. According to him, the blood which the Yampires draw 
from the wounds inflicted by them on cattle and horses is not more than an ounce or two, but the 
wound continues to bleed freely for some time ,* and it is not uncommon in the morning to find the 
animals attacked in a deplorable state, and bathed in their own blood. He mentions the case of an 
Indian who went to sleep when intoxicated, and was bitten in the face by a Vampire. The wound, 
which was small, and apparently of little consequence, was followed by an inflammation and swelling 
so great that the man’s features became quite unrecognisable. In all probability, the condition of his 
blood after his debauch may have had a good deal to do with the seventy of the after-effects of the 
wound. 
Mr. Bates, who during his travels on the Amazon was once wounded in the hip, probably by a 
Bat, which he describes as a small dark-grey Phyllostome streaked with white down the back, states 
that it is only a few persons who are subject to be so attacked. His friend Mr. Wallace seems to have 
had a larger experience in this respect. He ascribes the mischievous propensity to the great Javelin 
Bat ( Phyllostoma hastcUum), of which he says : — 
“ This is a common Bat on the Amazon, and is, I believe, the one which does much injury to 
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 any- 
thing, but awoke after the operation was completed. 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 wake the sleeper ; it seems most probable that it is either a succession of gentle 
scratches with the sharp edge of the teeth, gradually wearing away the skin, or a triturating with the 
