BLOODSUCKING BATS. 
327 
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 impression 
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 attentions. Once he came to us with a doleful 
countenance, telling us he thought the Bats meant to eat him up quite, for having covered up his 
hands and feet in a blanket, they had descended beneath Ms hammock of open network, and attacking 
the most prominent part of his person, had bitten him through a hole in his trousers ! We could not 
help laughing at the catastrophe, but to him it was no laughing matter. 
“ Senlior Brandao, of Manaquery, informed me that he had once an Indian girl in his house, who 
was much subject to the attacks of the Bats. She was at length so much weakened by the loss of blood 
that fears were entertained of her life, if they continued their attacks, and it was found necessary to 
send her to a distance, where these bloodthirsty animals did not abound. 
“ The wound made by them is very difficult to heal, especially in its usual locality — the tip of the 
great toe — as it generally renders a shoe unbearable for a day or two, and forces me to the conclusion that, 
after the first time, for the curiosity of the thing, to be bitten by a Bat is very disagreeable. They 
will, however, very rarely enter a lighted room, and for this reason the practice of burning a lamp all 
night is almost universal.” 
In the island of Muciana, situated in the mouth of the Amazon River, Mr. Wallace had an oppor- 
tunity of observing the mischief done by these blood-sucking Bats on a large scale. The island 
is used as a grazing-ground, but some of the horses and cattle on it, says Mr. Wallace, were u miserable- 
looking objects, from wounds inflicted by the Bats, which cause them to lose much blood, and some- 
times, by successive attacks, kill them. Senlior Leonardo informed us that they particularly abounded 
in some parts of the island, and that he often has Bat-hunts, when several thousands are killed.” Mr. 
Wallace describes the criminal in this locality as a large coffee-brown Bat, probably the Phyllostoma 
kastatum. He adds that they “ live in holes of trees, where they are killed in considerable numbers, 
Senlior Leonardo informing me that they had destroyed about seven thousand during the last six 
months. Many hundreds of cattle are said to have been killed by them in a few years.” 
Mr. Louis Fraser, when collecting at Gualaguzia, in Ecuador, obtained a specimen of the J avelin 
Bat, and was told by the Indian who brought it to him that this species attacks the Mules. 
Prince Maximilian of Neuwied also lays the crime of blood-sucking at the door of the Javelin 
Bat. He says : — “ In its stomach I found remains of different kinds of insects, but never any traces 
of blood that had been swallowed ; nevertheless, it is certain that this and many other species of 
Pliyllostomes suck the blood of animals. I have never surprised such a Bat at the moment of sucking, 
but have observed in the moonshine and twilight how these large animals fluttered, with strongly 
rustling wings, about our grazing beasts of burthen, which bore their vicinity quietly, but on the 
following morning were covered with blood, from the shoulders down to the hoofs. On the Rio das 
Contas we found the cattle quite exhausted with the loss of blood.” The same author adds : — “ As I 
have never found blood in the stomachs of the Pliyllostomes, this nutriment can only be partaken of 
by them rarely, and for this reason I do not venture to decide whether some, or all, or what species of 
them are fond of this food ; but with regard to the largest species here described, it needs no further 
confirmation, and I believe that of all the Pliyllostomes described by me, it is nearly the only one that 
sucks blood.” 
It will be seen from the foregoing statements that there is some uncertainty as to the precise 
species which may justly be charged with the crime of blood-sucking. The habit has been ascribed to 
various species, some of which are now known to feed upon fruits, whilst others find their nourishment 
in the abundant insect population of tropical America ; and in the opinion of many zoologists of the 
present day, the sole criminals are the species of the genus Desmodus, a small aberrant group, specially 
distinguished from all the rest by the structure of their teeth and stomach. Mr. Tomes, in commenting 
